A Hei'o of Faith and Pr'ayei^ 



Life of Rev Martin Wells Knapp 
- - >'mH — ^ - 

A.M. HILLS 




Class .B/ 7iM 
Book jy^^ ^_ 
CopgW 



COPVRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




M. W. Knapp. 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer; 



OR, 



Life of Rev. Martin Wells Knapp. 




BY 

REV. A. M. HILLS, 

President of Texas Holiness University, Greenville, Tex. 

Author of 

Life and Labors of Mary A. Woodbridge," "Holiness and Power, 

" Pentecostal Light," " Food for Lambs," " The Whosoever 

Gospel," and "Life of President Charles G. Finney." 



MRS. M. W. KNAPP, 

Mount of Blessings, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Copyrighted by Mrs. W. W. Knapp, 1902. 



THT LTBRAfiY OF 
CONGRESS, 

T'lvo Cores Recsiveo 

AUG. 25 1902 


OCoPyRIQMT CNTHV 

/tUvC It) -1^01^ 
CiASS CU XXa No. 


COPY 


3 1 









To the large and ever-growing Revivalist family, 
who sadly moiLrn the loss of their late teacher, ' ^ the 
Hero of Faith and Prayer ;^^ and to the world-wide 
circle of ' ' holiness people, ' ' from whose ranks has 
fallen a great leader and prince in Israel, this work 
is lovingly dedicated by their Friend and Brother, 

THE AUTHOR. 



Table of Contents. 

Page 
Introduction, - - - - ii 

Chapter I. One of God's Surprises. 

Wliere he finds Great Men — David, Elijah, Ehsha, Amos, Mar- 
tin Luther, Lincoln — The Mother of Jesus — Obscurity — 
Brother Knapp one of the Divine Surprises — His Humble 
Birthplace. — Martin' s Poetic Description of it, - - - 15 

Chapter II. His Parentage, Birth, and Boyhood. 

God appreciates a Christian Parentage — His Father a Shouting Meth- 
odist Class-leader — His Triumphant Death — His Mother Timid, 
but Strong in Spirituality — A Precious Mother-in-law — Remark- 
able Influence over Martin — Great Men's Mothers — Boys — His 
Birth — The Family — Incidents of Childhood — His Abnormal 
Timidity — Small Promise, 22 

Chapter III. Going to College — Finding His Life 
Companion, and Finding God. 

His Mother's Energy and Prayers — His Industry — The School of 
Trial — Lucy J. Glenn — Her Account, and Burden of Prayer — 
Martin's Story — Tribute to his Mother's Piety, and to Lucy's 
Piety and Fidelity to Christ — Conviction, Conversion, - 28 

Chapter IV. Marriage — Entering the Ministry — 
Early Pastoral Experiences — Sanctified. 

In College — Married — Description of the Young Minister — Small — 
In the Strawstack — " Not Much of a Church " — Widely Missed 
— A Picture of the Apostle Paul — His Experience in the First 
Pastorate — His Wife healed in Answer to Prayer — Picture of 
Second Pastorate — A Real Passion for Souls — Getting Sancti- 
fied — Six Noble Years of Ministry, 36 



Contexts. 

Chapter V. Third and Fourth Pastorates- 
Revival Experiences. 



Page 



Lions — Going to Montague — Revivals at "\Miisky Creek — Regan — 
Reed City — Ludington — Vei-mont\-ille — iSIontague — Kalamo — 
Richland — Enters Evangelistic ^York — Resolutions of Confer- 
ences, - 58 

Chapter VI. A Life of Faith — Revival Work — 

Tempted and Tried and True — Books 

AND Revivalist. 

Am Painting a True Picture of Brother Knapp — Bessie Queen' s words 
— His Great Faith in Finances — Renews Covenant — Torturing 
Instruments — ' ' \Miatsoever ' ' — Enlargement — Evangelistic 
Work — Eaton Circuit — DeWitt — Reading — Spring Lake — Ea- 
ton — Rheumatism — His Books, ''Christ Crowned Within," 
Revivalist, "Out of Eg}'pt into Canaan" — Remarkable Ten 
Years — Holy Spirit Power, 72 

Chapter VII. Going Down into the Deeps. 

Two Years of Suffering and Trial — " Full of Cheer" — Algansee Re- 
vival — "Revival Tornadoes "begun — Sick — Mrs. Palmer's 
Works — The Devil — Working on His Book — Spirit-filled — 
Great Heaviness — God's Presence — Finished " Re\'ival Torna- 
does" — Thirteenth Anniversary of Marriage — Wife Sick — Part- 
nership with God — Knapp Sick — Great Camp-meeting — Ionia 
— A Crisis and Dark Hours, 86 



Chapter VII I. The Furnace Seven Times Heated. 

Still Holding on — Wife Translated — Resignation — "Glorified" — 
Her Worth— The Iron \Mieel— " Not Shut in"— " Polishing 
Tools" — Sick — Anna a Comfort — Dead to all but God — Fa- 
ther's Death — Reed City Camp — " One Year !" — On the border 
of Paradise — Weak-Spine Family — Unexpected Trial — Victory 
— Another Furnace — Furnace Lessons — Port Huron Revival — 
Agony — Healed 99 



CONTKNTS. 7 

Page 

Chapter IX. Trial and Deliverance, 

Fruitfulness — Still Missed — "Deep, Deep Wound " — Satan's attack 
— Anniversary — Heartache — God All — Victory — God - refining 
— Thirty-ninth Birthday — ' ' Impressions ' ' finished — Insight 
into Soul Troubles" — Authorship — "Revival Kindlings" — 
Impressions — Wonderful Achievement — Married — Cincinnati, - Ii8 

Chapter X. Life's Work and Development 

IN Cincinnati. 

Pushing his Revivalist and Book-publishing — An Unpromising Field 
— The Devil's Finest Work — " Double Cure" — " Beulah 
Heights" — "Tears and Triumphs " — " Bible Songs," - 129 

Chapter XL Greatness in Service. 

A True Greatness — "A Living-light Fountain" — "[Lightning Bolts" 
— < < Worse than Pagans " — " Genuine Repentance ' ' — Edito- 
rials — " AppalUng Results " — " Sanctification in the Knees" — 
"Spiritual Wolves" — "Mistakes About Consecration" — 
"Mistakes in Believing" — "Take Time to Pray" — Premillen- 
nial Views Adopted — " Heavenly Treasures," - - - 144 



Chapter XII. A Potent Influence. 

Finger Marks ' ' — Last Four Years — Intimacy — My Publisher — A 
Bundle of Nerves, Brain, and Heart — Opening a Mission — Seven 
Flundred and Fifty Souls — A Failure Somewhere — A Sad Event — 
Knapp tried Before his Conference — Maryland Camp-meeting — 
The Battle Won — How it Looks to Outsiders, - - - 158 



Chapter XIII. A Growing Power. 

• A Spreading Benediction " — The Revivalist becomes a Weekly — 
Colportage Library — A Monthly — "Pentecostal Wine" — 
"Jesus Only "—Critical Study of Methodist Church— Starthng 
Editorial — " Revival Poison in the Methodist Pan" — " Poison 
in the Zion Pan," 183 



8 Contents. 



Chapter XIV. Courage to Venture. 



Page 



Lifted above *'tlie Curse of Commonness " — Purchasing the " Mount 
of Blessings" — How the Money Came — Striking Incidents and 
Answers to Prayer — The Texas Farm — Tlie First Money, - 203 



Chapter XV. Withdrawing from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

A Blest Man — God in His Life — A Painful Event — Batteries of Abuse 
— His Two Accounts of Why he left His Church — Reply of the 
Editor of Pittsburg Advocate, - - - - - -215 



Chapter XVI. Leaning Hard on God, and Perse- 
cuted FOR Righteousness' Sake. 

Started a Foreign Missionary Movement — Wanted to be a Missionary 
— His Last Book, "Pearls from Patmos" — Ripening for 
Heaven — Last Meeting with Knapp — Arraigned Before the 
Police Court — Knapp' s Testimony — The Lawyer's Plea — De- 
cision of the Judge — Knapp' s Comment — Items of Interest, - 236 



Chapter XVII. Nearing Home. 

Watching for Light and listening for Heavenly Voices — Bessie's Ac- 
count — The Last Communion — Wonderful Love for His Pupils 
— No Regrets — The Rescue Home — The Young Unfortunate 
Mother — Revelation — "Up in Heaven" — "For Africa" — 
Leaning on Knapp — Saturday Night — " Consuming Passion for 
Souls" — " Prevailing Prayer," --.... 274 



Chapter XVIII. Emancipation — Translation. 

A Long Life — Many Times Healed — Couldn't Get Hold — Last Songs 
— Ripening — Kissed into Slumber — A Vision of Life — A 
Week's Illness — Worn out — A Quiet Death — "I have no re- 
grets" — Simple Ceremonies — Godbey's Prayer and Sermon — 
Mrs. Knapp' s Journey Home — A Night with Jesus, - - 291 



Contents. 

Chapter XIX. Life After Death Through a 
Holy Influence. 



9 

Page 



Undying Influence — Tribute of Belle Staples — Loyal unto Death — 

The Cremation — Home Life — Reading Hearts Intuitively — 

Love for His Children — Business Methods — Only Holiness 

Books — Living by Faith — Long Days of Toil — A Clean Paper 

-God's Wonders, 315 



Chapter XX. Outpourings of Sympathy and 
Sorrow. 

"Better to have loved and lost" — The Saddest Telegram — Letters 
from Julia T. Randolph, Noah, Mena B. VonHolt, Mrs. Kent 
White, M. l'. Haney, Rev. Wm. Taylor, W. T. Davis, S. Bufes, 

B. F. Walker, Charlie and Letde Cowman, Wm. N. Hirst, 
** R," L. C. Pettit, B. S. Taylor and wife, Ida Wetmore, Mrs. 
J. H. Sparling, John C. Beach, S. Medden, Anna R. Colp, 
Elma Upperman, Rev. B. E. Paddock, M. L Ryan, Mrs. E. 

C. Harnor, Jessie and James Hundley, .... ^39 

Chapter XXL A Stream of Hopeful Sorrow. 

Widely Missed — Letters from H. E. Malone, Mrs. R. Vandiwort 
Delia Brown, J. C. Turner, L. C. Hodgin, E, Townsend Jones, 
Mrs. Myra Richardson, Herbert L, Henry, E. A. Fergerson, 
M. D. Warburton, John C. Beach, Hope Alvord, Wm. and 
H. E. Taylor, C. M. Keith, Seth C. Rees, Arthur F. Ingler 
and James B. Howell, S. H. Bolton, A. Lee Gray, Kate 
Applegate, F. M. Messenger, E. A. Kilbourne, Gertrude Moon, 
Grace A. Fisher, Emily P. Carter, F. Voget, Mrs. Myra Crozier, 
F. E. Morehouse, Mrs. H. Briggs, Geo. B. Kulp, - - 369 

Chapter XXII. The Hero Promoted. 

Tribute and Poem from some one at the Boston Convention — Tribute 
of Brother Godbey — From "Holiness Advocate," Goldsboro, 
N. C— From "Little Visitor," Port Huron, Mich.— From 
Zion's Outlook — Tribute of Seth C. Rees — Words from Mrs. 
Knapp — The Author's Tribute, ..... 400 



INTRODUCTION. 

The life of Rev. Martin Wells Knapp was so unique 
and striking and many-sided, so beautiful in its sim- 
plicity, so fruitful in noblest achievements, that it fully 
deserves a permanent place among the biographies of 
great souls, the saints of God. He was one of the 
few really great Christians whom my life has touched. 
I quite expected that his biography would be written; 
for I have considered him for some time the most 
potential leader and foremost character in the holiness 
movement. But I never dreamed that the sacred privi- 
lege would be conferred upon me to weave the chaplet 
for his brow. I did not feel myself worthy, and it did 
not enter my mind, until I learned from a clipping of 
a great city journal, which reached me by way of New 
York City, that I had been chosen for the work. I 
did not pray to be excused ; I did humbly suggest to 
the family that either Seth C. Rees, of Chicago, or Dr. 
Godbey, of Bveryzvhere, should write the book. During 
Brother Knapp's later and most fruitful years they had 
been more intimately associated with him than I, the 
field of my labor, for the most part, lying in far-away 
Texas. Both of them loved him with a love like that 
of David and Jonathan. Each of them had superior 
talent for such a work. I both wrote to Brother Rees, 

II 



12 IXTRODUCTIOX. 

and in person urged him to undertake it when he and 
his precious wife were guests in my home. But for 
some reason he refused. He consented only to write 
one chapter, as did also Dr. Godbey. I cheerfully 
accepted the sacred trust. 

But when the material for the book was sent me, 
with the request that I have the manuscript in the pub- 
lisher's hands in seven weeks, I confess I was startled. 
Teaching four college classes and delivering an exposi- 
tory sermon to the students at chapel daily, and writing 
several columns a week for the holiness papers, and 
tending to necessary college correspondence, it seemed 
impossible to do so much more. But I said, ''If God 
wants it, by the help of His Spirit and contributing 
friends, it can be done." And so, with a prayer for 
help, I bend to the task. 

I ought not to call so sweet an employment a task; 
it is a delight and a benediction to my own soul. As 
I look into the mirror of this saintly spirit, I see my 
own littleness and unworthiness, and it sends me to 
my knees with a heart hungering to be more like Christ. 
Such tenderness and fervor of love, such wide outlook, 
such unswerving loyalty and inflexible purpose and 
heavenly heroism and unflagging zeal as characterized 
him, how they shame us all ! O God, help us to have 
a portion of his spirit ! 

This book will be helpful in many ways. First, it 
gives us an inside view of the Divine workshop in which 
God fashioned His precious servant, and fitted him to 



Introduction. 



13 



be a chosen instrument for the accompHshment of great 
good. Here are the furnace-fires of affliction, the anvil 
of suffering, and the hammer of pain, the rasping and 
poHshing tools of trial and commingled defeat and suc- 
cess, sorrow and joy, out of which there came this giant 
fitted for achievement and storm and battles. 

Again, this story will inspire hope in the breasts of 
the obscure and humble. How few start under more 
unpromising skies, or end their earthly career in such 
radiance of sunset glory ! 

This biography also will illustrate the tremendous 
power of a truly Christian woman's influence. It rarely 
falls to the lot of any man to have such a prayerful, 
sanctified mother, and two such sanctified wives as God 
gave to Brother Knapp. They, and Bessie Queen and 
Mary Storey, all sanctified, were potent forces in the 
inner life of this receptive and appreciative soul. 
Bessie's contributions to this book wiU be the gems of 
the whole. I here acknowledge my indebtedness to her 
account of his last days. 

Lastly, the book affords a remarkable illustration 
of the power of faith and prayer and the transforming 
influence of the sanctifying baptism with the Holy 
Ghost in a life. Who can account for the transforma- 
tion of the timid boy depicted in these pages into such 
a courageous Great-heart, or explain the world-wide 
influence of the humble country circuit-rider, whose 
early death was mourned around the globe, save on the 
principle of the Pentecostal enduement of power from 



14 



Introduction. 



on high and the heart-cleansing baptism with the Holy 
Ghost? This humble man blazed in the sky of Chris- 
tian thought like a star of the first magnitude. Leave 
out the permanent factor of an abiding and indwelling 
Christ and the overshadowing influence of the Holy 
Ghost upon him, and an explanation of his remarkable 
career is impossible. No one would be so quick as he 
to give God all the glory. He shall have it all. Live 
on, beloved brother ; though dead, thou dost yet speak 
to all our hearts, pointing to the Pentecostal chamber 
as the real birthplace of Christian power and abiding 
usefulness, and to the closet of prayer as the place 
where the soul clothes itself with strength and puts on 
the armor of heaven ! 

May his God be ours, and a portion of his spirit 
rest upon each of us ! May the perusal of these pages 
prove a blessing to many hearts ! 




A. M. H11.1.S. 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer; or, 
Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



CHAPTER I. 
ONE OF GOD'S SURPRISES. 

" For mine own part, 
I shall be glad to learn of noble men." — Shakespeare. 
*' The mill streams that turn the clappers of the world arise in solitary 
places." — HELPS. 

Nothing is more remarkable than the surprising 
places in which God finds great men. It has been so 
through all ages. When God wanted to find the great- 
est king that ever sat on Israel's throne, the world's 
poet laureate, he passed by the city palaces and the 
families of the titled and the great, and all the stately 
elder brothers, and went out into the sheep pasture 
of a Bethlehem farmer. His mother was so unknown 
as never to have perpetuated her name. Even the 
prophetic vision of Samuel would have missed him. His 
own brothers saw nothing whatever of hope or promise 
in him, and rebuked him sharply for leaving his few 
sheep in the wilderness to visit the army at all. Not 
a soul dimly conjectured that the immortal giant-killer, 
the teacher of psalmody to our race, and the kingliest 
spirit his nation ever would produce, stood before them. 

15 



i6 A He:ro of Faith and Praye:r. 

When the chosen people of God had touched the 
darkest midnight hour of national backsHding, and king 
and queen and courtiers and pomp and power had all 
forsaken the Lord, and none would speak for Him be- 
cause of terror, it was then that God, hunting for a 
real hero to lift Jehovah's standard, and dare to re- 
buke crowned iniquity, and brave the wrath of the 
monster Jezebel, passed all the schools of the prophets, 
all the robed priests and Levites, and all the princes 
of the people, and found his man "in the obscurity of 
a mountain village" east of the Jordan — ''Elijah the 
Tishbite." Here was the man who was to lock up 
and unlock the skies, slay the false prophets, and be 
the mouthpiece to a guilty nation of the God that an- 
swered by fire. 

And when this majestic character was approaching 
his translation, and must select a successor, nobody 
but God would have told him to pass by all the sons 
of greatness and the men of renown, and select, as 
the great miracle-worker, the counselor of kings, and 
the guide of a nation's destiny, EHsha the plowman. 

This same wonder-working God, whose ways are 
as much above ours as the heavens are above the earth, 
and who never sees as man sees, passed by all the 
strong and the great and the promising, and elected 
to a delicate and difficult mission "Amos, the herdman 
of Tekoa, and the gatherer of sycamore fruit." 

Who but God would have ignored the claims of the 
titled and noble born, the kings and dukes and princes 
of modern Europe, and passed unnoticed all the seats 
of learning and the heirs of power and wealth and cul- 
ture, and would have gone to the miner's hut of a Ger- 
man peasant to find the boy who should throw all 
Europe into ferment, and make popes tremble, and 



Life: o^ Re;v. M. W. Knapp. 17 

launch upon the world a new civilization, a renewed 
Christianity, and all the tremendous forces of the 
Reformation? Modern progress, civil and rehgious 
liberty, and the teeming impulses of the foremost na- 
tions of all history came from that peasant hut where 
God found Martin Luther. 

If the wisest and most far-seeing men in all America 
had been put to the work of discovering the birth- 
place of the child who should become the future Presi- 
dent of the greatest Republic of earth, the greatest 
genius and most unique character of all the Presidents, 
and the only . one who would be the companion and 
peer of Washington in the enduring esteem of man- 
kind, no one would have thought of the comfortless 
log-hut, with its dirt-floor and its shiftless, ignorant 
father, in the hills of Southwestern Kentucky — the hut in 
which Abraham Lincoln was born. All these cases 
that I have mentioned, and thousands more that might 
be named, are God's surprises in history. He loves 
to laugh at human pomp and pride, and set at naught 
our calculations, and bring the unexpected to pass. 

When He chose a Jewish maiden to be the mother 
of the incarnate Son of God, he passed by all ranks 
and titles and exalted stations, and chose Mary, the 
peasant girl in the extreme of poverty, so that the 
baby wail of the newborn Lord of earth was first heard, 
not in a palace chamber, but in a stable by the beasts 
of the stall. And this God-child became a Galilean 
Carpenter. 

This is not unusual; indeed, it is almost the cus- 
tomary method of God in finding His most distin- 
guished servants. "The strongest trees are not found 
in sheltered nooks, but in the most exposed places, 
where sweeps the full fury of the storm ; the hardiest 
2 



1 8 A Hero o? Faith and Praye^r. 

flowers grow, not in hothouses, but on the mountain- 
side, in close proximity to the glacier and the snow; 
and God's grandest heroes are taken, for the most part, 
not from the lap of luxury or the home of affluence, 
but from the dwelling of penury and the abode of ob- 
scurity. Their very struggles have developed strength, 
and the difficulties which they have been forced to en- 
counter have quickened inventiveness and inspired reso- 
lution." 

Brother Knapp was one of these Divine surprises. 
If the astutest committee Methodism could have pro- 
duced had been sent out to find in Southern Michigan 
the home in which would be born and from which would 
go forth the most prolific author, and the most suc- 
cessful publisher, and the most potent editor in the 
holiness movement of our time, not a member of it 
w^ould have thought of inspecting that one-roomed log- 
house in Clarendon, Calhoun County, as the possible 
place. They would all have said that out of such 
cramped and meager conditions nothing great could 
come. They would all have passed by, looking at 
everything else within the bounds of the horizon but 
the humble yet sacred place where "the hero of faith 
and prayer was born. "Ye behold your calling, 
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, 
not many mighty, not many noble are called ; but God 
chose the foolish things of the world, that He might 
put to shame them that are wise ; and God chose the 
weak things of the world, that He might put to shame 
the things that are strong; and the base things of the 
world and the things that are despised did God choose, 
yea, and the things that are not, that He might bring 
to nought the things that are : that no flesh should 



hi^^ o^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. iq 

glory before God." (i Cor. i, 26-29.) ''Even so, Fa- 
ther ; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." 

God seems to Hke to do such things to magnify 
himself, and to exalt the humble and the meek of the 
earth, while ''He scattereth the proud in the imagina- 
tion of their heart." "He hath put down the princes 
from their thrones, and hath exalted them of low de- 
gree." 

I find no description of that lowly home but one in 
a little New-Year's poem written by Martin to his 
mother in 1897, which I subjoin here : 

New Years, 1897. 
7b Mother from Martin. 

OUR CHILDHOOD DAYS. 
The advent of another year 
Again is drawing very near, 
Reminding me of flight of time 
And thoughts which shape themselves in rhyme. 
Our early days and childhood home, 
Like pictures, to my memory come. 
Like Moses' rod they strike my heart. 
And from my eyes the teardrops start ; 
Upon my cheeks they freely flow 
In memory of long ago. 

The old log house I plainly see 

Just as of old it used to be. 

Though rough and rude ' t is sacred yet, 

A place we never can forget. 

Where first our early being proved 

A mother' s care, a mother' s love. 

The wooden pump, the cherry-trees. 

The grapevine and the busy bees ; 

The locust-tree, and walnut too. 

Beneath whose shades we played and grew ; 

The currant-bushes, green and red. 

Beneath whose shelter chickens fled ; 



20 A Hi:ro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

The orchard with its golden boughs, 

And shading trees behind the house ; 

The fences, barn, and fields of grain, 

Though years have fled, I see again. 

Pet "Penny" dog, I think I hear. 

And "Prof." seems barking very near; 

And "Jack" and "Rock," with prancing feet, 

Just as of old I seem to greet. 

Full may many a ' ' Jack ' ' I since have seen, 
But none like him to me has been. 
These scenes, and many more, arise 
And pass before my tear-dimmed eyes. 
But time has swept them all away. 
Till scarce a trace remains to-day. 
But dearer still, and far more fair, 
The forms of those who mingled there. 
There mother, kind and true to God, 
Each day exemplified His Word. 

Within her heart the Spirit's power 
Beamed brightly every passing hour, 
While patient, tender, good, and true, 
She told and lived what we should do. 
Upon our mother, evermore. 
May God His richest blessings pour ! 
Praise Him, she lives our lives to cheer, — ■ 
May she remain for many a year ! 
But he who toiled in want and pain 
Has vanished back to dust again. 

He felled the forest, tilled the soil, 
But now is free from care and toil. 
He passed triumphantly away 
To sights and sounds of endless day. 
Our oldest sister, young and fair 
Had gone before to meet him there. 
We four remain, and God knows why. 
And who will be the first to die. 
While, sundered far upon life's sea, 
We hasten to eternity. 



Lii^i^ OP' Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 21 

I feel a deep and pungent pain 
That I CO recreant had been. 

that I then had faithful proved ! 
More kind have been, more truly loved ! 
But vain regrets can not atone 

For all I should have been and done. 
In vain in harvest time to weep, — 

1 did not sow, I can not reap, 
Nor present works can wash away 
The evil of an early day ; 

And though the past is all forgiven 
By loved ones and by God in heaven, 
Yet still there lives a lingering pain, 
That much of life would live again, 
If with the present gift of grace 
I could again its steps retrace. 

I trust we each again shall meet 
Before Life's journey is complete. 
And that in heaven we shall share 
A kingdom and a mansion fair, 
Which never more shall fade away. 
But brighter grow through endless day. 

To Him be endless thanks and praise. 
Who thus hath lengthened out our days, 
Atonement made for all our sin ; 
His light without, His love within, 
His Son to save and sanctify, 
To conquer death and glorify ; 
His providence on every side. 
His Spirit, too, to keep and guide. 
His Word to bless. His presence cheer, 
His fire to banish every fear. 
O may we each His name adore, 
And serve and love for evermore. 
His Pentecostal power prove. 
And live and die in perfect love ! 
A happy blessed bright New- Year, 
Replete with heavenly love and cheer ! 



CHAPTER II. 

HIS PARENTS, BIRTH, AND BOYHOOD.— 
ANCESTORS. 

" A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of re- 
mote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered 
with pride by remote descendants." — Lord Macaulay. 

'* The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious ances- 
tors, is like a potato — the only good belonging to him is underground." — 
Sir T. Overbury. 

Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round ! 

Parents first season us. Then schoolmasters 
Deliver us to laws. They send us bound 

To rules of reason." — George Herbert. 

' * Home is the first and most important school of character. It is 
there that every human being receives his best moral training or his worst ; 
for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure 
through manhood, and cease only with life." 

God does make something of ancestry, especially 
of a Christian parentage. God-fearing parents who 
assume the solemn duty of parentage in the fear of 
God and for His glory may rationally hope to have 
children that "are an heritage of the Lord." Brother 
Knapp may have had humble and obscure parents, of 
whom the world would scarcely expect so illustrious a 
son; yet he had just the kind of pious parents that the 
loving Father watches over with sleepless vigilance, 
and loves to bless. 

His father, Jared Knapp, was an old Methodist 
class-leader for years — one of the shouting kind. He 




" Grandma " Knapp. 



Life o]? Rev. M. W. Knapp. 23 

was one of the men, all too few, whose moral backbone 
was not a cotton-string. When he was converted in 
early life, his father wanted him to do something that 
was wrong, and he left home rather than do it. Per- 
haps this was partially the human origin of that in- 
flexible moral stamina that was such a striking ele- 
ment in Martin's character. This old-fashioned Meth- 
odist, who made no excuses and asked nobody's par- 
don for being a Christian, had a triumphant death at 
an advanced age. For a week before his departure 
he would look up and wave his hand to celestial visit- 
ants. The day before he died he heard their music, 
and spoke of it to his family. He passed away in Mar- 
tin's home. May 24, 1891. He came to Michigan from 
New York in 1836, and was one of those godly pioneers 
who helped to save that beautiful peninsula from god- 
lessness, and plant in it the institutions of Christianity. 

These are all the facts I have about Martin's fa- 
ther. Few indeed they are ; but perhaps they will an- 
swer our purpose. From him, I suspect, Martin inher- 
ited a physical frame deficient in robust vigor and nerv- 
ous power — in short, a rather depleted vitality — but also 
drew from him a certain persistence of character and 
fervor in his religious life. 

Of his mother we know much more. She is still 
with us. We have lived weeks with her under the same 
roof. She is one of the most retiring of women, reti- 
cent and timid, but of a strong character and firm con- 
victions. If Martin inherited the intensity of feeling 
from his father, he acquired the deep spirituality and 
superior brain from his mother. She is the "still water 
that runs deep." Her reverent daughter-in-law, whose 
soul is knit to hers as Ruth to Naomi, writes me : ''She 
always has seemed to me like a root-Christian — little 



24 A Hero op^ Faith and Praykr. 

seen of her; but great results have followed her beau- 
tiful life. I have never Hked the v^ord 'mother-in-law' 
used around me, as she has been so lovely and been 
a real mother. She has lived with us twelve years, 
ever since we were married, and is heart and soul in 
the work. She has never done much public work, but 
has achieved much by fasting and prayer." 

Through life this strong, sterling woman had a re- 
markable hold upon her son; and he, on his part, was 
fully conscious that he was his mother's boy. Indeed, 
I think history will show that most great men are 
masculine reproductions of their mothers. What 
greater crown was ever laid on the brow of mother- 
hood than the phrase, "The mother of the Wesleys?" 
This seems to be God's usual way of permitting great 
mothers to move the world. Largely denied publicity 
themselves, they make their impress on the world 
through their great sons. 

Mrs. Knapp certainly did this. She says when her 
children were placed in her arms at birth, one by one, 
she felt that they were a sacred trust from the Lord, 
and that He said, "Train this child for Me;" and she 
felt responsible for them always. O that all mothers 
would feel this sacred responsibihty, and train their 
children for God ! 

This mother was exceedingly industrious, thrifty, 
and economical. Martin was a grown boy before he 
had his first suit of store clothes. His mother made 
the others. She taught him never to buy anything 
he did n't need ; and that was a fixed habit with him 
always, and it was a needed discipline, fitting him to 
face the grave financial problems that always confronted 
him. 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



25 



Of such parents was born in the above-described 
log-house, on March 27, 1853, Martin Wells Knapp, 
son of Jared and Octavia N. Knapp. His father, Jared, 
was the son of Samuel and Abigail Knapp, of Parma, 
Monroe County, New York. His mother, Octavia, was 
the daughter of Melzar and Eunice Wells, of Sullivan, 
Madison County, New York. 

Martin had two half-sisters, Mrs. Letta J. Conner, 
who died in 1866, and Mrs. R. V. Buck, wife of Amos 
Buck, of Stevensville, Montana. Martin also had a 
brother, L. J. Knapp, now a lawyer, living in Missoula, 
Montana. We' can get but few incidents of his child- 
hood to give to the public, just to show the elements 
of his make-up and the bent of his life. When he 
was a little fellow about two years old, a devoted 
Christian lady, who often used to come to the home of 
his parents, was always talking to the child about Jesus 
and missionary work in a simple way that he could 
understand. She was appointed to collect missionary 
money, and one day little Martin came to her with two 
pennies — all he had — and freely gave them for the work. 
From that time on, until the day of his death, he always 
had a missionary spirit. 

He always had a great reverence for anything of 
God and the things God had made. One night, when 
he was but a little child, his mother held him up to 
see the full moon, and said : "Is n't that pretty ? That 
is something God made." Pretty soon he was bowing 
his head to the moon as a thing belonging to God. As 
he grew older, he retained the same spirit of reverence 
for God. 

When he was five years old, his pastor preached 
one day from the text, ''Great peace have they that 



26 A Hero op" Faith and Prayer. 

love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them." He 
spoke to his mother about it when he got home, and 
often afterward. That sermon made an impression on 
him which he never forgot. 

When he was a little boy, his father told him, if he 
would keep the weeds out of the potatoes, he should 
have a whole row for himself. To this he agreed, and 
did it faithfully ; and when the potatoes were dug in the 
fall his father paid him the money for his row. After- 
ward the boy's uncle gave him two cents a bushel for 
husking some corn. With the money thus earned he 
bought a pig which he kept until it sold for thirteen 
dollars. He afterward bought a calf, which was kept 
until it was sold for fifty dollars. With this money he 
started for school at Albion College at the age of six- 
teen. 

He early learned the lessons of industry and econ- 
omy which so wonderfully marked his later career. 

He was so bashful and timid when a child that he 
would rush out of the house, jump over the fence, and 
break for the woods when he saw a visitor coming to 
his mother's door. This was especially the case when 
a minister came. This was a part of his maternal in- 
heritance. This timidity amounted to a positive dis- 
ease, and, but for all-conquering grace, would have ut- 
terly disqualified him for the ministry. The immor- 
tal Catharine Booth had the same v/eakness; and the 
same Holy Spirit that overshadowed Brother Knapp 
also lifted Mrs. Booth above her weakness, and made 
her one of the three mightiest preachers of London. 

The father's health was very poor, and, though Mar- 
tin was the youngest in the family, the work of the 
farm fell heavily on him. He would toil hard and get 



hi'^Z 01^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 27 

it out of the way in the fall, and go to school in the 
winter. 

These few items are all we know about the boyhood 
of him who developed into such a royal manhood. 

There was very little in it that gave much prom- 
ise, to a human observer, of surpassing usefulness or 
pre-eminence in any line of human endeavor. It was 
all hidden from the eyes of men ; and the more I think 
of it the more I am inclined to believe that, but for 
the inspiring and empowering work of the Holy Spirit 
on this life, it would have remained hidden forever. I 
believe this biography will prove to be a monument to 
the uplifting, ennobling, and transforming power of the 
Holy Ghost on a life. It ought to breathe hope into 
the breasts of the lowly born. It ought to teach the 
shrinking and the timid that they need not despair of 
usefulness because of natural limitations, nor be crowded 
down into defeat by untoward circumstances and un- 
friendly environments. The Spirit of God is mightier 
than human deficiencies and hostile conditions. He can 
enter willing hearts and lift them out of themselves and 
make them into new "vessels of honor," fitted for the 
Master's use. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOING TO COLLEGE.— FINDING HIS LIFE 
COMPANION, AND THROUGH HER FIND- 
ING GOD. 

*' Forgive me if I can not turn away 

From those sweet eyes that are my earthly heaven, 
For they are guiding stars benignly given 
To tempt my footsteps to the upward way ; 
And if I dwell too fondly in thy sight, 
I live and love in God's peculiar light." — Michael Angelo. 

*' But the lark is so brimful of gladness and love, 
The green fields below him, the blue sky above. 
That he sings, and he sings, and forever sings he, 
I love my Love, and my Love loves me." 

— Samuel Coleridge. 

"It has been said that no man and no woman can be regarded as 
complete in their experience of life until they have been subdued into 
union with the world through their affections. As woman is not woman 
until she has known love, neither is man man. Both are requisite to each 
other's completeness. The true union must needs be one of mind as well 
as of heart, and based on mutual esteem as well as mutual affection." 

— Samuel Smiles. 

I find almost nothing about his college Ufe in the 
material sent me to use in this biography, except on 
two points. But these are wondrously important. First 
I learn that through his mother's energy and prayers 
he starts to Albion, Michigan, in the same county in 
which he was born, at seventeen years of age, to at- 
tend the Methodist college located there. 

The father's health was very poor, and it seems that 
28 



Life: of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 



29 



Martin had to get the autumn work done up on the 
farm before he could start for college. His mother 
writes that he used to work on the farm all day until 
night, then eat supper, and do the chores, which would 
keep him busy until nine o'clock. He would then come 
in and settle down to the study of his Greek and Latin. 
While going to school in Albion, he sawed his own 
wood, and economized in every way. 

There is one thing about it : Boys who go to col- 
lege in this way know what they are in college for, 
and how they got there ; and they do not waste their 
time, but make the most of their opportunities. Such 
straitened conditions are not the most favorable to 
high scholarship; but they do produce strength of char- 
acter and indomitable will-power, which are two mighty 
forces in a life. 

The writer knows of a young man who thus put 
himself through his college ; and he is now a member 
of the United States Senate. He himself has a feeling 
remembrance of such an experience, having earned thir- 
teen hundred dollars of the money that went into his 
education. The school of stern trial is the one from 
which God turns out some of his most rugged and in- 
domitable heroes, who would not be produced by kind- 
lier fortunes, nor grown beneath sunnier skies. 

But two blessings came to him — two events tran- 
spired in his life while at Albion, so transcendently im- 
portant in their bearing upon a human destiny that 
only one other event equals it between the cradle and 
the grave. He found his life-companion, and through 
her found his God." Lucy J. Glenn, daughter of Isaac 
and Ann Glenn, of Henrietta, Jackson County, Mich- 
igan, gives her account as follows : 

"While at Albion College I became somewhat ac- 



30 



A Hi:ro o:^ Faith and Prayer. 



quainted with a careless young man who might be 
termed 'a scoffer at rehgion.' After he had gone home, 
one spring term, he wrote to me. I thought I would 
politely reply and tell him I could not correspond with 
him. But a strong impression was made on my mind 
that I ought to pray over the matter before so deciding. 
Alone in my room, I asked God's guidance, and there 
the question was asked me, 'If you knew that, by cor- 
responding with him, your influence would win him to 
Christ, would you not be willing to do it?' I replied, 
'Yes, Lord;' and I began the correspondence with that 
end in view ; viz., the salvation of his soul. 

"In answer to my second letter he said, one reason 
he wished for a correspondence with me was because 
he thought I would talk religion to him, and that mother 
and myself were the only Christians in whom he had 
any confidence. At the same time he asked me to 
pray that he might become a Christian. So I prayed 
and wrote for several months, until one Sabbath a 
strong impression came to me that I must spend that 
day in prayer for him. I could hardly teach my Sab- 
bath-school class, nor listen to the sermon that morn- 
ing, my mind was so taken up with prayer. At the 
evening prayer-meeting I was in an agony of prayer, 
when suddenly a quiet, restful feeling pervaded my soul, 
and my Heavenly Father said, 'My child, he shall be 
saved.' And I just knew it then, just as well as I did 
a year later, when he yielded to God and was saved." 

We now subjoin Brother Knapp's account of the 
same matter. It will be seen that somehow his own 
father had not made a favorable religious impression 
upon him. There are oftentimes people of undoubted 
piety who have some unfortunate way or manner or 
tone of voice, or an almost indescribable something 



Li^E^ oi^ R^v. M. W. Knapp. 31 

about them that is Hke the fly in the precious oint- 
ment of the apothecary, causing their rehgion to have 
an unsavory odor. I find two accounts of it in print 
by Brother Knapp. I use parts of the two. 

"What we have felt and seen 
With confidence we tell, 
And publish to the Sons of men 
The signs infallible." 

"My only object in relating this is to glorify God. 
I love to tell what He has done for me, and in this 
way can do, not only while I live and where I am, but 
where I may not be personally able to go, and after 
I have gone to heaven above. 

"I was converted when nineteen. A devoted moth- 
er's holy living and earnest prayers early fastened con- 
victions arrow-deep in my soul. For years it quivered 
there. Engagement in gayety and vain and wicked 
thoughts could not extract it or cure the pain it 
caused. . God, through her influence, had made pre- 
cious impressions upon me when young that were never 
totally erased. I can not remember when I did not 
think of God and of eternity. The long-faced, sancti- 
monious, and sepulchral tones of some professors, when 
talking on religious themes, set me strongly against 
their kind of religion, but could not kill my faith in the 
religion of my mother. To her first of all, under God, 
I attribute the convictions that led to my conversion. 
Praise God for the patient Christian mothers who, with 
firm, though aching hearts, 'sow with tears,' and trust- 
ingly await the 'reaping-time of joy.' 

"My Egypt experiences lasted from the time I 
reached the years of accountability until I was nine- 
teen. Sometimes my heart was tender ; but it grew 
harder as the years advanced. Awful conviction would 



32 A Hkro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

sometimes possess me, but I quenched it. I grew very 
giddy. I came to dislike meetings, preachers, and all 
religious society. I would go without my meals rather 
than enter the house when a minister was there, and 
threatened to leave home if mother mentioned eternal 
matters. Thus sadly Satan blinded me. 

^'Mother would sometimes lay the Testament where 
I could not help seeing it when retiring, with some 
passage marked for me to read. Repeatedly I dreamed 
the day of judgment had come, earth was burning, the 
Judge descending, and / unprepared ! 

* For years I bore about hell in my breast ; 

When I thought of my God, it was nothing but gloom ; 
Day brought me no pleasure, night gave me no rest, 
There was still the grim shadow of horrible doom,' 

"Egyptian night grew blacker, and, duped by my 
spiritual Pharaoh, I tried to be an infidel. God's grace, 
through mother's prayers, prevented. In hundreds of 
ways my Savior tried to win me from my servitude of 
sin; but, deluded by the enemy, I would not be won. 
When seventeen, through mother's plans and sacrifice, 
I began my studies at Albion. Here I met her who 
became my wife. She was a genuine Christian, and, 
next to mother, became instrumental in my conversion. 
In my Egyptian experience mother was my Moses, 
and she my Aaron. The sepulchral tones and sancti- 
monious ways of some professors had set me against 
their kind of religion ; but I was saved from being mysti- 
fied by my Moses and Aaron, in whom the blessed, 
soul-cheering, joy-bringing gospel shone in all its 
purity. 

"Death-scenes and funeral processions were a ter- 
ror to me. The Spirit often used them to mightily 



LiFi: OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 33 

arrest me. The following words haunted me like echoes 
from a graveyard : 

* Come, ye young, ye gay, ye proud, 
You must die and wear a shroud ; 
Time will rob you of your bloom, 
Death will drag you to the tomb ; 
Then you' 11 cry ' ' Woe unto me ! 
Lost through all eternity !" ' 

"O, how can I be thankful enough that I was not 
then cut ofif ! 

Yes ! death would have come, and its angel have torn me 
By force to the judgment where hope could not be ; 

And the spirit of darkness from thence would have borrie me 
To unspeakable woes in his wide burning sea. 

Where the worms and the wails and the lashes cease never, 
My poor, ruined soul would have sickened of fire, 

And I should be tortured for ever and ever ; 

But the pains of eternity never would tire.' 

"I became fully convinced of my lost condition, 
yet would own it to none but my 'Aaron.' I was ir- 
ritable when approached on the subject by any other. 
She believed that it was wrong for Christians to be 
'unequally yoked together with unbelievers,' and her 
loyalty to God led her to say, 'I never can marry an 
unconverted man.' She kindly, yet persistently, urged 
an immediate and complete surrender to God. I was 
brought face to face wath God and duty, and knew 
that I ought to yield. The tempter said, 'There is time 
enough yet;' and for a time I listened to his voice, and 
was supremely miserable. Day and night thoughts of 
God, judgment, and eternal doom conspired to make 
me wretched. I resolved to yield. Then whispered 
the tempter, 'Be a silent Christian.' I tried it. I be- 
gan to read my Bible, kneel at the family altar, where, 
3 



34 A Hero of Faith axd Prayer. 

in my pride of heart, I had for a long time sat upright, 
and in silence tried to pray. I felt that these were 
steps in the right direction, but got no peace. Thus 
for some time I tried to compromise matters with 
God, and bring Him to my terms, but He would not 
come. 

"Hitherto God had gently entreated me by His 
servants. At this point I was made to feel that trifling 
with God in this half-hearted way must cease, or He 
would come with sterner measures. I did not heed 
the warning, and then His judgment fell with crush- 
ing weight upon my soul. O the horrors of those days 
of darkness ! I had been forewarned, and knew that 
I deserved all; so I could not murmur. Alone in the 
woods again, I sought to settle the question. I fell 
upon my knees, and tried to pray. The question came, 
'Will you now fully yield?' I said, 'In all things, but 
just that one — I can not open my school with prayer.' 
This was my Red Sea. 

"I could get no peace, and whenever I tried to pray, 
that question would rise like a specter before me. I 
would say, 'Anything but that ;' but it was God's test- 
question, and he would not be turned away. At this 
point the impression came: 'Now or never! Yield at 
once, or you will suddenly be cut off and forever lost !' 
This came like a lightning stroke. I felt as sure of its 
truth as that I lived. The next ^Monday morning my 
school began. Tremblingly I took my Bible, and read 
one of the shortest psalms I could find, and then my 
courage failed me. The next and the next morning the 
same was repeated. Thursday morning I said : 'This 
will do no longer. I will fully obey.' God helped, and 
then I did as best I could, and then it was O so easy 
to fullv trust. And before the sun went down that 



hiT^H or* Rhv. M. W. Knapp. 



35 



night the witness of the Spirit was given, and peace- 
sweet, deep, rich, and inexpressible — was mine. My 
warfare with God was ended, past sins were all for- 
given, the power of sin was broken, the first letter in 
the alphabet of redemption was learned, and I began 
the new life. I wrote at once to my friends of the 
change, made a public profession at the first oppor- 
tunity, was baptized, and united with the Church. Soon 
came my call to the ministry and preparation for that 
work. When twenty-three, we married, and since then 
have gladly labored to bring others to Him who sought 
and saved us." 



CHAPTER IV. 

MARRIAGE.— ENTERING THE MINISTRY.— 

EARLY PASTORAL EXPERIENCES.— 

SANCTIFIED. 

' ' Love is a fire that, kindling its first embers in the narrow nook of a 
private bosom, caught from a wandering spark out of another private heart, 
glows and enlarges until it warms and beams upon multitudes of men and 
women, upon the universal heart of all, and so lights up the whole world 
and nature with its generous flames," — Emerson. 

*' The utmost blessing that God can confer on a man is the possession 
of a good and pious wife, with whom he may live in peace and tranquillity 
— to whom he may confide his whole possessions, even his life and wel- 
fare." — Martin Luther. 

*' Two heads in council, two beside the hearth^ 
Two in the tangled business of the world, 
Two in the liberal offices of life. ' ' 

It would be a delight to us and, no doubt, very 
instructive withal, if we could have some pictures of 
Brother Knapp's college life. It may be known to 
the dear Revivalist family and to the readers of this 
book that our beloved one intended to write his auto- 
biography for his next book. Had he lived to carry 
out that purpose, we should have had precious, inci- 
dents about his school life, with those moral reflections 
in which he was so fertile. But now everything of the 
kind is lost. We have not in our material one soli- 
tary mention of anything except that there he met the 
precious young woman who afterward became such 
an inspiration to his soul and such an effective assist- 

36 




Lucy Glenn Knapp. 



Lii^i: OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



37 



ant In his life work, and that through her he found 
God. Well, thank God for the Christian schools where 
young men and young women can go from Christian 
homes and find worthy life companions. I thus found 
my companion, and the spiritual blessing that she 
brought to my life abides with me yet. 

Martin started to school at Albion College at seven- 
teen, and, save when he worked on the farm parts of 
terms, he continued until he was twenty-three. He left 
college two years before graduation, in a mistaken haste 
to enter the ministry, so common to young men. In 
this particular <:ase it may not have been a mistake ; 
for there are exceptions to all rules. When a man 
has made an extraordinary success in his life's work, 
it is useless, and perhaps even foolish, to wish that it 
had been lived differently. Who now could wish that 
Washington, or Abraham Lincoln, or William McKin- 
ley, had been college-bred men? And so with Brother 
Knapp. 

The next solitary item, unadorned even by date or 
comment, is : 

"Married in ^yj to Lucy J. Glenn, daughter of Isaac 
and Ann Glenn, of Henrietta, Jackson County, Mich- 
igan." 

I do not know what the gossiping and the curious 
and the ambitious thought of that marriage ; but I am 
quite sure the angels in heaven rejoiced over another 
family started in the fear of God, another home founded 
in prayer and cemented with trust, in which was an 
altar of faith and a window opening toward the sky 
and the far-away throne of God. I can imagine that 
the sensitive dove of peace, attracted by the love and 
the heavenly atmosphere of the place, folded her wings 
and concluded to stay. 



^8 A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

Before we enter into any descriptions of the pas- 
torate, let us take a critical look at the young man. 
We may begin by saying that a stately and command- 
ing presence is one of the most effective aids to ora- 
tory. Few persons but sensitive orators themselves 
realize how the people are moved simply by an impos- 
ing stature, a noble visage, a lofty mien. I have heard 
a successful lawyer and judge of more than ordinary 
ability, in middle life, declare that he would give all 
his possessions and the earnings of his life if he could 
just have the physique of a certain rival lawyer that 
he named. He added : "I would make the money back 
in one year. I have seen that putty-headed, big lawyer 
pound the desk of a judge and order him to charge 
the jury so and so, and the judge turned pale and 
obeyed him ; but if I had said the same words to him 
he would have ordered me imprisoned for contempt 
of court." This is a great fact of human nature, ac- 
count for it as we may, or sneer at it, as some do. 
The orator of massive frame and noble features and 
imposing stature has an immense advantage over a 
small man of poorer physique, even though, in other 
respects, he is equally gifted. 

Now I want to inform every reader who will try 
to account for Brother Knapp's success on natural prin- 
ciples that he had none of these physical advantages that 
are so desirable and so helpful. 

He was only about five feet four or five inches 
high, and weighed about one hundred and twenty 
pounds. The proportions of his body were not fine : 
the various parts and members of his body, in their 
general effect, seemed as if they had been thrown to- 
gether or had chanced to come together by some 
laughable accident of nature. The first impression he 



I^iFi: oi? Rii:v. M. W. Knapp. 



39 



made upon a strange audience was always unfavorable. 
He was the furthest from being prepossessing and im- 
posing in his appearance, and, like any sensible, thought- 
ful man, he was fully conscious of it when standing 
in the presence of a stranger. He knew that it was 
a disadvantage under which he ever had to labor. 

The Apostle Paul had to contend against this same 
difficulty. He wrote thus about people's opinion of him- 
self: "His letters," they say, "are weighty and strong, 
but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no 
account." Who knows but that this insignificant phys- 
ical presence was the "thorn in the flesh" about which 
Paul besought the Lord with such earnestness of prayer, 
but in vain. "My grace is sufficient for thee," was the 
only answer. 

Here is a pathetic passage in our brother's diary 
that shows what he had endured in his public life. It 
was written more than ten years after entering the 
ministry : 

"HENRIETTA, April 21, 1889. 

"Received a blessed baptism of the Spirit to-day 
while reading the Word. Brother Williams wants me 
about the first of June to help him with a tent-meet- 
ing. Am not yet sure about it. I have been think- 
ing over my past life. I remember that once, when I 
was helping Uncle Jones thrash, a boy said, 'Well, if 
you should get buried in the stack, you would not be 
missed by many.' When I preached my first sermon at 
Dekonston, Dr. Warren prophesied that I would yet 
make a successful minister. When Brother Kellogg 
took me up to join Conference, some one said, 'What 
did you bring him up here for?' When on the Potter- 
ville Charge, we were once caught out a number of 



40 A Hkro oe^ Faith and Praykr. 

miles from there in a storm. We stopped at a house, 
and the man asked who I was. In conversation there 
I told him that I was pastor of the Potterville Church. 
*Is it much of a Church?' was his reply, as he scanned 
me doubtingly from head to foot. 

"God has done wonders for me. I used to feel that, 
if faithful, God would, according to my faithfulness, in- 
crease my talent and usefulness ; and He has. I had 
not much stock to begin with ; but He has multiplied it. 
I now am far short of many and what I might have been 
had I earlier yielded it to God ; but I expect to see what 
I have, according to the same rule, greatly multiplied. 
God shall have all the glory." 

Little did the person think, when he said that, if 
Martin were buried in the straw^ stack, he would not 
be missed, that when that insignificant-looking man 
came to die he would be missed all over America and 
around the world, and that letters of condolence would 
come from Africa and Asia and Europe and the far-off 
islands of the sea ! He only saw Martin Wells Knapp, 
the insignificant ; he did not see Martin Wells Knapp, 
plus the Holy Ghost transfiguring him, enduing him 
with power and glorifying him. 

I must complete this pen photograph of our brother. 
There was one redeeming feature. His beautiful face 
was lighted up with intelligence and stamped with the 
kindness and love of a great soul. His dark eyes — 
his most expressive feature — flashed and flamed and 
pierced like two beams of light that were kindled m 
heaven. Nobody that ever knew him in his home and 
worked with him in literary and religious work dur- 
ing his later years can ever forget that face and those 
eyes. Brother Knapp, with his pent-up energy and 
boundless enthusiasm in the work of God, his unfailing 



Lii^t: OP* Rkv. M. W. Knapp. a I 

love and Christ-like compassion for the sinful, his di- 
vine passion for souls driving on his little, overworked 
body, with his face and eyes flaming with the light of 
the t>ther world, was to me the best picture of what 
the Apostle Paul must have been of any man I have 
ever yet met in public life. 

But we must remember that this was what the Holy 
Spirit had made Brother Knapp, after having the right 
of way for years in his heart. 

When he entered the ministry, he lacked much of 
this ; and the people only saw the diminutive frame and 
the bashful timidity that was anything but promising to 
a Church. But he had some equipments that God could 
use. They were these : a fair education, good natural 
gifts, a genuinely Christian heart, and a noble Christian 
wife. Here is a beautiful picture of how God used him : 

*'A YOUNG PASTOR'S EXPERIENCE. 

"M. W. Knapp. 

"It was his first Conference appointment. He was 
young, timid, and inexperienced. His wife was very 
sick, so that he could not move to the charge. He 
went alone, leaving the true, tender, yet very sick com- 
panion in the care of God and her mother. 

"As he started out alone, his sky seemed as cloudy 
as the heavens above him. Soon, as if in response to 
the tears in his soul, the rain began to fall from with- 
out. The journey was over thirty miles. He reached 
his destination thoroughly drenched. A kind sister re- 
ceived him, and her husband cared for his horse. 

*'He preached the next day with much fear and 
trembling. The people were disappointed. They 
wanted a more experienced, older man. He did not 



42 



A Hero of Faith and Praykr. 



blame them. They dolefully shook their heads, and 
the enemies of the Church derided. A rival denomina- 
tion was jubilant ; their cultured, gifted pastor would 
now surely draw the crowds. 

''Though trembling, the young man was not utterly 
without hope. God gave him the text, 'If God be for 
us, who can be against us?' He stood firmly on that. 
He unfolded its meaning and challenged the people to 
test its power. God moved the hearts of two leading 
officials. Their hearts tendered towards the bashful 
youth. They took him in and thus stemmed the cur- 
rent that else would have broken upon him, and per- 
haps swept him down. 

"For weeks the many were feeling hurt over the 
way they felt that Conference had imposed upon them, 
quarterly-meeting was coming. A cold-hearted, beer- 
drinking, wealthy member of the Quarterly Conference 
summoned the young man for a talk. It was to warn 
and prepare him for the hghtning stroke that he was 
hoping soon would leap upon him. 'You need not be 
surprised,' said he, 'if the Quarterly Conference requests 
your removal.' 

"It went through the young man's heart like a dag- 
ger, but he said nothing, thought of the patient, white- 
faced wife hovering between hfe and death, and firmly 
placed his feet upon the promise, 'If God be for us, 
who can be against us?' 

"The Quarterly Conference came. It was a notable 
occasion. Large delegations from various points on the 
big circuit were on hand. 

"They came early. They had been imposed upon by 
the Conference. The young preacher must pay the 
penalty. The furnace was ordered to be heated and 
the servants to bind him and put him in. 



LiFi^ oi^ Rh:v. M. W. Knapp. 



43 



"But God was not dead. He had a plan. They had 
overlooked this. The presiding elder could not come, 
but in his stead sent a minister who was a stanch friend 
of the young man, his former pastor. 

"Further, the three official members, men of God, 
whom He had raised up to carry out His plans, were 
on hand. Brother Wrong View made his plea, Brother 
Little Faith waxed warm over his argument, Brother 
Cold Heart and a number of others sided -with them, 
and it looked like the furnace or scaffold was about to 
seal the young preacher's fate. 

"Then Brother Faithful and Brother Honest and 
Brother Strong Faith made their plea. God spoke 
through them. The plot was crushed, and the young 
preacher promoted and given a comfortable support 
and the co-operation of the Church. 

"Then God healed his wife. Soon they were nicely 
settled upon the charge. Then came revival after re- 
vival of religion, until hundreds professed salvation and 
three churches dedicated to God under a happy three 
years' pastorate. 

"Moral. — First. If young preachers will trust God 
and obey Him, He will defeat their foes and make them 
more than conquerors, though they be inexperienced 
and timid. 

"Second. Let cold officials beware, lest in crushing 
God's ministers they insult Him and hinder His work." 

That insignificant-looking preacher, leaning hard on 
God in mighty faith, was a good deal bigger person- 
age than those proud and worldly Church officials 
dreamed that he was. God and he conquered. 

He says, "God healKd his wife:." This is Mrs. 
Knapp's account of it as given in her diary: "In Sep- 
tember of 1877 I came down with typhoid fever. After 



44 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

having the fever for several weeks, I asked the phy- 
sician how long he thought I must lie there. My hus- 
band had had his first appointment to work in the Mich- 
igan Conference, and I felt anxious to get settled in 
our new home and get to work. The doctor said he 
could do nothing to help me, except to give me quiet- 
ing medicines, and that the fever must run twelve or 
fourteen days yet, and then it would be four or five 
weeks before I could sit up an hour a day. Mother, 
Martin, and I had been praying over the matter for 
several days, and after the doctor left me I began to 
wonder whether I was worth more to the cause of 
Christ- to lie there and suffer and do nothing than to 
be at work for Him. I fully believed He was fully 
able to heal my body, if it pleased him to do so ; but 
I was not sure it was his purpose. 

''The next morning, after an almost sleepless night, 
I awoke, to find my door closed and I alone. My first 
impression was that my room was filled with a heav- 
enly presence, and next that it was my time to be healed. 
So I looked up and asked the Lord if it was His pur- 
pose to heal my body. Immediately the answer came 
back, *In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Naza- 
reth I say unto you. Arise and walk.' My first thought 
was that I was no stronger and could n't, but I knew 
God would never tell me to do anything I could not 
do, so I replied, 'I trust Thee, Lord,' and immediately 
arose from the bed. 

"The instant I put my feet upon the floor I realized 
I was gaining strength, and I knelt down by my bed, 
and thanked God that He was healing me. I dressed 
myself, and walked from the bedroom, through the 
dining-room, into the kitchen, and sat by the cooking 
stove, and ate my breakfast. I was a marvel to all 



Lii?£) 01^ Ri:v. M. W. Knapp. a^ 

who saw me. My brother, coming in and finding me 
there, said he thought he saw a ghost. And indeed, I 
looked hke a corpse. I could reach around my arm 
above my elbow with the thumb and second finger when 
I had sat up three weeks. I sat up ten and one-half 
hours that first day, went to the table with the family 
at noon and at night, sewed a fresh ruche in the neck 
of a dress, and changed my dress in the afternoon, 
poured out my medicine myself, and sent word to the 
doctor not to come again, and felt like singing all day, 

* The Great Physician now is near, 
.The sympathizing Jesus.' 

"This was on Friday, and the following Monday I 
worked at preparing grapes for canning four and one- 
half hours. O how close to me my Physician seemed 
all the time ! I never knew until I had been sitting up 
some weeks that any one recovering from this disease 
was ever injured by overeating ; but almost every meal, 
while enjoying my food to the utmost, I would have 
a strong impression I had eaten enough, and would 
go away from the table so hungry that I could not 
keep the tears back. 

"I had slight fever four nights ' after I began to 
recover ; and the fifth night, while praying over it, the 
answer came, 'According to thy faith be it unto thee.' 
'Then,' I said, 'by the grace of God, I '11 not have the 
fever any more ;' and I did not. In a few weeks we 
moved to Potterville, and began our work in real ear- 
nest. People told me I would surely kill myself; but 
my confidence in God was too strong to be shaken in 
any way. All glory to His name ! Who is so able to 
heal sick bodies or sick souls f" 

Thus wicked, worldly opposition overcome, Divine 



46 A He:ro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

healing, the erection of several houses of worship, and 
several revivals, and the salvation of hundreds of souls, 
is the epitome of the results of the first pastorate — 
far more fruitful than first pastorates usually are. 

Here is this insignificant-looking pastor's experience 
on another field, as told by himself : 

'*A SPARK FROM MY PASTORAL LIFE." 

"M. W. Knapp. 

"My first charge v^as a country appointment, v^ith 
a village as its center. 

"At one of these outposts v^e had no building, v^or- 
shiping in a church of another denomination. Our 
people w^ere in fair circumstances, but did not want to 
build. I was young and inexperienced, but got my 
message from God, and proclaimed His truth. Soon 
He showed me that it was His will that our people 
build a church, as neither society had enough religion, 
so but what there was constant friction between them. 
They were very reluctant to accept a proposition which 
touched their pocketbooks so strongly, and I felt it 
my duty to explain to them what the consequences 
would be, and advised them to obey God in this mat- 
ter, or disband. 

"This position, cumbered with my lack of gifts and 
experience, determined them to ask for a change at the 
close of the year. 

"I had been preceded by a preacher of larger pulpit 
gifts, and they felt that the 'good of the cause de- 
manded a more experienced man.' Feeling this way, 
they sent their request to the authorities. In the mean- 
time myself and my wife felt that our work on the 
charge was not done, and received the assurance that 



Lii^e: of Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 47 

we were to be returned. 'We committed our way to 
the Lord, and waited patiently for Him.' 

"The protest to our return failed to reach the pre- 
siding elder, and we were returned to the charge. All 
this time we were in total ignorance of the opposition. 

"As was my custom, I soon began calling on and 
praying with the people. It was not long until my 
labors found me among these dissatisfied members. I 
called upon the leader, not knowing there Vv^as a ripple 
on the storm-tossed sea. He was in the field working. 

"He had been very cordial, and his house often 
our temporary home. He seemed so still and strange 
and cold ! What could it all mean ? 

"Finally he broke the suspense : 

" 'Did you not know that we requested a change 
of pastors?' 

" 'I knew nothing of it.' 

"'Well, what are you going to do?' 

"'Do? Why, the Lord and the Conference sent 
me back, and I am going to stay.' 

" 'But no one will hear or support you.' 

" 'I can't help that. I '11 be on hand at my next ap- 
pointment.' 

"I returned home with a sad, pained heart, and told 
my wife. We prayed over it, and God comforted us and 
assured us of His presence, companionship, and sup- 
port, and, strong in His strength, we decided to pa- 
tiently do His will, and trust Him with the conse- 
quences. 

"At our first appointment to the seat of this seces- 
sion a funeral interrupted, so we could not go. At 
the next a quarterly-meeting kept us away, so it was 
six weeks before we were able to enter the pulpit where 
our absence was so much dearer than our company. 



^8 A Hero of Faith and Praykr. 

"When nearly there, we met the leader of the re- 
volt going away to another meeting. His head hung 
low, his look was sad. 

*'He was in the main a good man, had a noble wife, 
and his better nature and loyalty to the Church were 
conquering, and 't was hard for him to thus run away. 

"I never blamed any of them for the way they felt, 
as I was young and unskillful. The marvel was that 
any rallied around us, except that my wife was gifted 
and God was on our side. 

*'God, as usual, had given a text and message for 
the occasion. He gave me comfort and assurance 
that my text was of Him. 

"It was, 'None of these things move me.' I did 
not once refer to the existing dissatisfaction, but tried 
to show that Bible religion, the kind Paul had, would 
put one where their souls would be so staid on God 
that they would be unmovable. 

"I was not fully sanctified at that time, but my heart 
was tender and sensitive to Divine impressions, and 
God blessed the Word. 

"While at first doubtless some thought I was going 
to preach on 'None of these things make me move,' they 
were disappointed and they were tender. The out- 
siders said, 'The little preacher has got more religion 
than the members.' God knows about that; but the 
members came and shook hands with me, and from 
that hour all was changed. A revival soon broke out, 
and the church enterprise was taken up, and at the 
close of the year all were urgently in favor of our re- 
turn. 

"We were sent back, and remained as long as the 
law of the Church would allow. The church building 
was completed and dedicated. After entering the evan- 



hi^n OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 49 

gelistic field, we returned, and God gave a revival of 
wonderful power, over one hundred professing conver- 
sion. 

''The memories of that place and people are among 
the sweetest of my life. May God bless them ! The 
tears start as I write these lines. She who then, in the 
beauty and vigor of her young life, was by my side, 
and with her songs of joy and victory helped lead on 
the embattled hosts, is now 'mid still more glorious 
scenes above. Others have followed her. 

* Most are scattered now and fled, 
Some are married, some are dead.' 

Yet, thank God, of those who still are living, 

'All may meet on that blest shore. 
And reign with Christ for evermore.' 

"The above incident hints the following lesson: 

"God changes forbidding circumstances into wel- 
come victories, when His servants follow Him." 

The following is a picture of the second pastorate 
by one of the members : 

"Our pastor preceding Brother Knapp was Brother 
Charles Jacokes, a large man, in middle life, and one 
possessing considerable dignity. When word came 
from Conference — I think it was the fall of 1880 — that 
our new minister was M. W. Knapp, a very young 
man, every one was anxious to see him. At that time 
what is now Elsie Station was a large circuit of three 
appointments, called Duplain Circuit, with the parson- 
age at Duplain. I well remember the first time he 
came to Elsie. It was Sunday evening. The church 
was crowded. All were eager to see the new minister, 
and I think that, without an exception, all were more 
or less disappointed ; for he looked like a small boy 
4 



^o A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

of eighteen years. I have heard him say that, as he 
looked over the large congregation, he was so em- 
barrassed he expected he should break down. He came 
here from Potterville, which was his first appointment, 
where he had been three years. We soon found out, 
however, that we had no boy minister, but one fully 
equal to all the responsibilities contingent upon a large 
and important circuit. His gifted and devoted wife, 
Lucy Glenn Knapp, was his constant and efficient 
helper. 

''There was no sacrifice of ease, comfort, or things 
temporal too great for them to make for the cause of 
Christ. It can be truly said that they two were pos- 
sessed of a passion for souls; and during their stay 
of three years (when that was the full term) they con- 
ducted two fruitful revivals at Elsie, besides at other 
points. Not content with the work already in hand, 
they went out to three neighborhood schoolhouses, and 
held revivals and organized classes, so that part of 
the time he had six preaching-places. One of these, 
now grown to be the thriving village of Bannister, has 
a prosperous organization and a good church building. 
Immediately upon Brother Knapp's coming among us 
he began to preach full salvation definitely, more so 
than we had ever heard before, although he himself 
had not entered into the experience as yet. It was here 
that he held the two days' holiness-meeting, assisted by 
Brother and Sister Taylor, and where he entered into 
the blessing, with the manifestations as described in 
a recent Revivalist. I well remember his telling us all 
about it here in our home, and the impression it made 
upon me. While here he built two churches : one at 
Shepherdsville, one at Elsie. The year those churches 
were built was a peculiarly trying and discouraging 



i 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



51 



year for farmers, and they composed the larger part of 
the membership. It was known as the wet season. 
Wheat grew in shocks in the field, and even standing in 
the fields, where there had been so much rain as to be 
miable to cut it. The heads lapped together, and tiny 
shoots of green could be seen all over the fields. Na- 
turally this looked discouraging for this enterprise, and 
you who have known Brother Knapp in later years can 
understand with what faith and contagious enthusiasm 
he pushed the matter to completion, giving largely of 
his own small means at both places. He was the 
means, under God, of leading very many in the Church 
into a richer experience, even into the way of holiness. 

''I shall never forget how he would drop into our 
home, and, with the warm handclasp and genial smile, 
ask, 'Well, Brother [or Sister], how is your soul 
to-day? Is it all right between you and God? Are 
you sure your feet are in the highway?' O how glad 
we always were to see him come, although sometimes 
almost dreading those questions, yet never faihng to 
experience help; and we would watch him drive away, 
knowing that God was a little nearer. His helpfulness 
a little more real and personal because of this visit from 
our well-loved pastor. What he has accomplished 
in the short forty-eight years of his life would be im- 
possible to estimate. God only knows. But how many, 
many there are that can say, 'He helped me !' Truly 
he wore himself out, and doubtless accomplished more 
than many who live to a great age. 

"Speaking of his extremely youthful appearance 
when he came here, a young couple, near neighbors 
of ours, accompanied by friends, drove over to the par- 
sonage to be married. They had never seen the new 
minister, and when he met them at the door, they asked 



^2 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

him if his father was at home. Seeing the situation, 
he said, "If it is the minister you want, I am he.' Of 
course, this was a good joke, and no one enjoyed it 
more than the minister and his wife. 

"There is so much more that I would hke to say, 
so much that will ever be treasured among the pre- 
cious memories, sacred and hallowed, that go to make 
our lives rich and sweet ; and such things can not be 
put upon paper, can not be expressed with ink and pen. 
We are glad we were intimately acquainted with 
Brother Knapp ; so glad our home has been hallowed 
by his presence; so glad that during those precious 
three years they called our house 'home,' and many 
nights occupied the prophet's chamber ; so glad that 
he baptized two of our dear children, who in their 
youth were converted in one of his meetings ; so glad 
that our sweet Xellie welcomed him to the heavenly 
home ; so glad for the blessed certainty that, when our 
work is finished, we, too, shall once more clasp that 
hand and see that genial smile and enjoy such delight- 
ful company through all eternity in that Home not 
made with hands. We sometimes say that we have 
more friends there than here. O, how joyful will the 
meeting be ! Jueia E. CantiE.^' 

In these days of joking and feasting and lodge-join- 
ing preachers, how refreshing to read of this young old- 
fashioned gospel preacher, who loaded himself with 
extra work, and preached six times a week, and had 
revivals, and went about seeking the lost with a real 
passion for souls ! 

There are people who say that there is no such 
thing as a second blessing of sanctification subsequent 
to regeneration, and to be sought after by Christians. 



Lii^i: OF R^v. M. W. Knapp. 



53 



These critics of the hohness movement tell us that the 
people who seem to get this second blessing are only 
reclaimed from backsliding. 

This beautiful life alone would refute such an utterly 
erroneous theory. This man was all on fire for God 
and the salvation of souls, and, so far from being back- 
slidden, was preaching full salvation and ''groaning 
after it," and holding a Convention of two days to talk 
about it, even before he reached the experience. "Back- 
slidden !" Indeed ! The zeal of the Lord was even then 
consuming him. The truth is, that is the very kind 
of Christians v^o seek sanctification and get it. 

Too many Christians have so low a state of justifi- 
cation that they have neither concern about nor any 
care for sanctification, and, of course, while in that 
state, never get it, nor even seek it. Praise the Lord, 
it is the spiritual souls, who, with a great heart-hunger, 
cry, "O to be like Him !" that God makes fat ! 

Brother Knapp, ever reaching out for a full salvation 
and for an "iitfermosf Savior, at last had the longing of 
his heart satisfied. He gives the following account of it : 

"Fourteen years have I passed since I crossed the 
Red Sea, and I have never for a moment felt like return- 
ing to Egyptian bondage. Glory to God in the high- 
est for such wonderful deliverance ! 

"For nine years I tarried in the Sinai Wilderness 
experience. I was converted, and knew it, loved God 
and His people, worked for Him as well as I could, saw 
many souls converted, and grew in knowledge and ex- 
perience ; but my temper, which was quick, often made 
me conscious that I was not possessed with all the mind 
of Christ. I was hampered with selfish ambitions, jok- 
ing and teasing tendencies, and other movements of 
the carnal mind. Inbred sin sought to expel the holy 



^4 A Hkro of Faith and Praykr. 

power that bound it, and there were frequent struggles 
within between the two contending principles. I needed 
the blessing mentioned in the following song-prayer of 
a well-known poet : 

* Savior of the sin-sick soul, 
Give me grace to make me whole ; 
Finish Thy great work of grace, 
Cut it short in righteousness. 

Speak the second time, ' ' Be clean ; " 
Take away my inbred sin ; 
Every stumbling-block remove. 
Cast it out by perfect love.' 

"I had read much on the subject of heart-purity, but 
never heard a sermon on it. I knew that the Bible 
clearly taught cleansing from inbred sin and the full- 
ness of the Spirit as the privilege of every believer. I 
reasoned : 'God does not do things by halves. I know 
that He converted me and that I am His child; there- 
fore I must be saved from inbred sin.' The fact, how- 
ever, that it was in my heart, and that I often was pain- 
fully conscious of it, was stronger than my argument, 
and confused me. I said, 'I '11 keep it down ;' but in- 
stead of that, it kept me down. Then I said, 'It must 
be a growth ; I '11 grow into it.' I did grow into the 
knowledge of self and Christian privilege, but made 
little progress in the grace of perfect love. How it 
pains me that in my dullness I tarried so. long in the 
shallow waters, but the great deep of God's love was 
continually inviting ! 

"In November, 1882, I permitted the Lord to lead 
me to Kadesh-Barnea, on the borders of the promised 
land. By His grace I then and there entered the land, 
receiving the blessed baptism of the Spirit that cleanses 
from inbred sin and fills with perfect love. In June 



hi^^ o^ Rnv. M. W. Knapp. 



55 



I had appointed a three days' special service for my- 
self and people to seek this longed-for experience. Rev. 
William Taylor and wife, two noble workers who had 
ihe fullness of the Spirit, were invited. It was a time 
of heart-searching. Their testimonies and teachings 
were clear and given in all humility, and convinced me 
all the deeper of my great need and privilege. I re- 
ceived great help at that time, but not the conscious- 
ness that the great work was wrought. 

''In November the crisis came. I had been preach- 
ing full salvation, but could lead my people no further 
than I had gone myself. I set apart a time to settle 
the matter. God met me and gave me the promise : 
'If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.' The blessed 
Holy Spirit explained it to my heart, and helped me to 
take hold of it right then and there. He suggested, 
'Why not believe on the authority of His Word that 
God is doing just what He agrees to do just now?' I 
was conscious that the conditions upon which the prom- 
ise was based were being met, and could see no reason 
why I should not, and repHed, 'Lord, I do.' In an 
instant I was made conscious of my cleansing. The 
'giants' fled, the 'walled towns' crumbled, and Canaan, 
through Christ, was possessed. To God be all the 
glory ! 

"The 'fullness' soon followed. I saw then where my 
trouble had been. I had not dared to venture on the 
promise and trust in the present tense. I thanked God 
for the victory given, and asked that, in order with 
greater confidence I might publicly proclaim and urge 
the experience, that He would give me still further 
unmistakable evidence of its reality. I retired looking 



^6 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

for something more. I was not disappointed. Instead 
of some thing, some One came — the One altogether 
lovely, even Christ Himself. I had slept about an hour 
when I was suddenly awakened by what sounded like 
three distinct knocks on the front door. In an instant 
I was made just as conscious of the Divine presence 
as ever man was of the company of an earthly friend. 
I felt the presence of a gentle, unseen power upon my 
head. Then a w^ave of Divine power and love, causing 
a sensation something like an electric shock, only in- 
expressibly pleasurable, rolled over my entire being. 
Then three impressions were made just as vividly as 
if uttered by an audible voice : 

*'i. 'This is the added evidence you prayed for.' 
''2. 'You are healed of your disease.' 
"3. 'A definite call to especial evangelistic work.' 
*'A few days after my wife received a call to the 
same work. Since then she has triumphantly passed to 
brighter realms above. 

*'For years I have been sufferings from the effects of 
a sunstroke. It had taken me from my studies, and 
threatened to prostrate me completely. Every year of 
my preaching, some had thought, would be my last. 
Physicians said my only hope w^as to stop and rest. The 
physical cure wrought was perfect. Both the spiritual 
and physical blessings stand the test of toil and time. 
Great and gratifying as the physical healing is, I count 
it a mere shadow compared with the spiritual uplift 
then received. My wife says I have been a changed 
man. My members said there was a marked improve- 
ment in my preaching. Teasing, foolish jesting, and 
selfishness, by the Divine Plowman were rooted out, 
and the Spirit's graces implanted in their stead. The 
second letter in redemption's alphabet has been learned, 



Lii^E oi^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



» 



57 



and a holy ambition aspires to further progress, and 
then to teach those unlearned. 

"Dear reader, may we each be so faithful in the early 
Canaan that we may greet each other in the heavenly ! 

" 'Unto Him that hath called us out of darkness into 
His marvelous light be glory and dominion for ever 
and ever! Amen.' " 

Six years in the ministry ; five churches built, eight 
or ten revivals, and himself sanctified! Well done, be- 
loved brother ! you are pushing along fast toward 
"glory, and honor, and immortality." 



CHAPTER V. 

THIRD AND FOURTH PASTORATES. — RE- 
VIVAL EXPERIENCES. 

"It is the great lesson of biography to teach what man can be and can 
do at his best. It may thus give each man renewed strength and confidence. 
The humblest, in the sight of even the greatest, may admire and hope and 
take courage. These great brothers of ours in blood and lineage, who live 
a universal life, still speak to us from their graves, and beckon us on in the 
paths which they have trod. Their example is still with us, to guide, to 
influence, and to direct us. For nobility of character is a perpetual bequest, 
living from age to age, and constantly tending to reproduce its like," 

— Samuel Smiles. 

** Work as if thou hadst to live for aye ; 
Worship as if thou wert to die to-day." 

— Tuscan Proverb. 

" Blest work ! if ever thou wert curse of God, 
What must his blessings be !" — J, B, Selkirk. 

** Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment 
of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that be has 
done his best." — Sydney Smith. 

Brother Knapp was one of God's faithful workers, 
blessed and happy in his work. If this precious 
biography achieves anything, it will teach "what man 
can be and can do at his best." 

I find that Brother Knapp's third pastorate was at 
Lions, Michigan. The incidents are the very briefest. 
The mother writes that ''he had a revival everywhere 
he went." Mrs, Knapp's diary has this passage : 

*'We were at Lions, Ionia County, one year, and 
58 



Life: oi? Rev. M. W. Knapp. eg 

the last three months of the year we both felt that the 
Conference year would finish our work there. The peo- 
ple and our presiding elder were very anxious for us 
to remain; but we had a growing and deepening con- 
viction that our work there would close at Conference 
time. The last day of Annual Conference Martin came 
home, and we joined together in prayer concerning the 
matter. We were to remain there or come to Mon- 
tague. While praying there came to my mind the 
pleasant home we were so nicely situated in, our 
pleasant surroundings, and how my health would not 
admit of moving. 

''Then I seemed to see this place pictured out ; only 
it looked very horrid ; but a finger pointed straight here, 
and a command came to go. I immediately arose 
from my knees, and as Martin did the same, he said, 
'Well, what are you going to do about it?' And, with- 
out stopping to think that I could not well come alone, 
I replied, 'I 'm going ; are you ?' He said, 'Yes, and my 
promise, "I will go before you, and will be your 
rereward." ' Anna prayed about it, too, and had a 
similar answer." 

They went to Montague, where they remained three 
years. Then the little jottings of the wife in the diary 
show pastoral visitations, and Conventions, and revivals 
chasing each other in rapid succession. Their hearts 
and hands were ever full of work for Jesus. 

The wife herself began to preach and hold revival 
services, even apart from her husband for a week at a 
time. They were getting such a reputation for success 
in revival work that they were called to assist other 
pastors in their Churches a hundred miles away. The 
Lord had a man and woman he could use in Christian 
work, and He let the Churches find it out. 



6o A Hkro o^ Faith and Prayi:r. 

"REVIVAL INCIDENTS. 

^'By the First Mrs. Knapp. 

"Whisky Creek. — Began meetings November i, 

1885. 

"Sunday evening: Good attendance, interest, and 
one young lady began publicly serving Christ. 

"Monday evening: Two more started. 

"Tuesday evening: Ten more started in the Master's 
service, most of them coming forward with weeping, 
and seeming great earnestness. One lady was urging 
her weeping daughter to go forward. I asked her if she 
was a Christian, and she said she was n't. I asked her 
to go with her daughter ; she did, and also her son came 
and knelt with them. The lady said afterward she had 
been a Christian, but was backslidden, and had not 
trained her children right. She soon gave evidence of 
conversion. 

"Wednesday evening : Martin preached from 'Awake 
thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall 
give thee Hght.' Three more began serving Christ, and 
some who have been seeking gave clear testimonies 
of conversion. One brother said he began to backslide 
by neglecting to ask a blessing when a stranger was 
at the dinner-table. 

"Thursday evening : Martin preached from 'Ye must 
be born again.' Very deep conviction, and one new one 
started. 

"Friday evening : Had an experience-meeting ; 
good, too. Those who are coming out on the side of 
Christ are very humble in their confessions, and very 
happy in Christ. One brother said, 'Why, there is no 
more danger of your backsliding than there is of your 
starving to death if you eat.' One more chose Christ. 



hi^n oi^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 6i 

''Saturday evening: Good meeting. One brother 
said he had not been to meeting until last night, and 
then came late; but when he came into the house he 
felt the power of the Holy Spirit. 'Why,' he said, 'he 
could see it in the room, and it went through him like 
a shock of electricity.' More of the converts testified 
for Christ than before. 

"Sunday, 8th: Grand morning meeting began by 
singing 'Praise God' twice to 'Duane Street,' for what 
He had done and was about to do. Subject, 'Sanctifi- 
cation.' A great many arose, consecrating themselves 
to Christ. Splendid testimony-meeting. A strong 
moral man arose, and stated that he had been a sin- 
ner, but by God's grace he would live for Him. He 
praised the Lord for saving him. I have scarcely ever 
seen such a sensation among saints and sinners, 
old and young. Some wept, others laughed for joy, 
while others shouted. It seemed that all were deeply 
moved. For the first time I organized a Methodist 
Episcopal class. Some twenty-five joined. Closed with 
'Praise God.' 

"Evening: God gave the victory. Blackboard ser- 
mon. Deep conviction. One or two started; some 
twenty-two have expressed a determination to serve 
Christ during these twelve services since last Sabbath. 
All glory to God ! One brother said that, two years 
ago, a man induced his wife to leave him, and he back- 
slid because of it. Last winter he thought he would 
come back to God, but he found he could not forgive 
that man ; but last Sunday night, while I was preaching 
from 'God so loved the world,' he thought the matter 
over, and made up his mind he could forgive that man; 
and so he came to Christ Monday evening. One sister 
had said several times during the week that she would 



62 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

rather die than stand in any one's way; then, on Sab- 
bath evening, when a lady who had deeply wronged 
her joined the Church on trial, she felt so badly about 
it that she nearly fainted. She had no idea that she 
had hardness in her heart toward any one ; but she 
said, by the grace of God, it must go ; 't was a severe 
test, but showed her her own heart as probably nothing 
else would have done. 

^'Montague, Mich. — Friday evening, November 13th : 
Martin and I went to Reed City last Tuesday to attend 
the District Revival Conference. Sister Lucy Nether- 
cott Daniels invited me to attend it, and I accepted the 
invitation because I was fully persuaded that God so 
ordered. Found, after my arrival, that she sent for me 
to hear my experience on Christian work, faith-healing, 
etc. I had not been in town four hours before I heard 
that a young lady dying with consumption was very 
anxious to see me. I was taken to her the next day; 
found she had heard of my faith cure, as announced 
in the Michigan Advocate a year ago, and hoped I might 
help her along that line. I saw she was not at all at 
rest regarding spiritual matters, and I talked to her 
along the full consecration, complete submission, per- 
fect obedience line, and finally prayed for her. She said 
she could say Amen to all my prayers. I left her, and 
returned next day to find her rejoicing in a complete 
Savior. She had asked her lover, the evening before, 
whether it would be easier for him to become a Chris- 
tian if God should spare her life, or take her to Him- 
self. He told her in either case he was going to be 
a Christian. The evening following my second visit 
she talked with a number of unconverted friends, and 
after they had promised to serve God she prayed for 
them. Had a good talk with another afiflicted lady, who 



hi^t or Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 63 

is deeply convicted for heart-purity. I should have felt 
sure God sent me to Reed City, even though I had 
seen no good results from my going; but it was good 
of Him to shov^ me vvrhy He sent me. Brother Daniels 
has been strongly impressed, for months back, that 
Martin ought to help him in revival work ; but he did 
not know, until a few weeks since, anything about our 
call to evangelistic work. 

"jMartin preached Thursday evening, and five started 
in Christ's service. He is going back up there next 
Tuesday to continue the work. Several of the ministers 
invited us to help them this winter. We have had 
eight calls to revival work, besides three other places 
where we feel God wants us to labor. 

''Reed City. — Friday, November 20th: Martin came 
Tuesday, and I came yesterday. We found willing 
workers to do our work on the charge in our absence, 
and the people bid us 'Godspeed.' The interest here 
is deep and constantly increasing inside and outside 
the Church. Numbers forward every night. 

"Tuesday, December i, 1885: Some thirty or forty 
have been forward for prayers during the meetings, 
many of whom give good evidence of conversion. Sun- 
day evening the house was crowded, and extra seats 
were brought in. Nine new ones manifested a desire 
for salvation. God blessed us with His presence. The 
people were told that what they could freely and gladly 
give us, for our expenses, would be thankfully received. 
The first six dollars were all silver dollars. One brother 
handed me two dollars, saying, 'I would not take ten 
thousand times that much and be put back where I was 
two weeks ago.' One lady gave me 25 cents, and, 
weeping, said she wished she had more for me. And old 
lady gave 50 cents, and said she wished it was $50,000. 



64 A He:ro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

Another said I had done her $100 worth of good, and 
she wished she could pay it. 

''Tuesday, 8th : Martin came back yesterday. While 
here before, we went down and sang on the street, and 
he talked from a dry goods box three evenings. New 
work for him. We ladies used to go and sing on the 
street, and invite people to church, at Montague, last 
winter ; but he never went down. The work here seems 
to us to have been terribly hindered by cold Church, 
who will not make their wrongs right, nor work. We 
go to Ludington to-day to help Brother Stark in re- 
vival w^ork. 

"Montague. — December 26th, Saturday: I was at 
Ludington almost two weeks, and Martin was there one. 
The minister was all taken up with 'marrying a wife,' 
the older members with a Church fair, and the younger 
ones with a Christmas concert ; and the first week we 
had a terrible storm. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit was 
poured out upon the people. Some were sanctified, 
some fifty manifested a desire for salvation, and a 
good number gave evidence of clear conversion. 
Some were deeply convicted of sin, and called them- 
selves the worst sinners in Ludington. We had very in- 
teresting meetings Sunday and Monday. Tuesday I 
came home very tired. 

"Vermontville, Mich. — Saturday, January 2d: We 
held meetings at the Green Schoolhouse from Sabbath 
27th until Thursday, closing with a watch-night service. 
It rained and rained all the week till Thursday, so that 
many could not attend the services ; but God gave us 
a grand watch-night service, in which many were 
greatly blessed. I left home again to-day, where we 
are to help Brother Paddock in revival work. Martin 
came yesterday. 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 65 

''Tuesday, 5th : The work is opening grandly. The 
members are doing well. To-night eighteen persons 
arose, saying they were not satisfied that God saved 
them. Ten came promptly forward to the altar in the 
consecration service. The pastor has been doing good 
work. 

"Tuesday, 12th: The work is going gloriously on. 
About forty have already taken a decided stand for 
Christ, many of whom give clear evidence of conver- 
sion. Brother Lamnis said that he had been exercised 
about tobacco for several days, and Sunday night he 
knelt to pray, and he felt he must lay his tobacco one 
side while he prayed. He did so, and God blessed him, 
and when he arose he took his tobacco again; but he 
felt mean over it, and then told the Lord that if it was 
wrong for him to use the stuff to show him by with- 
drawing His Spirit from him for a season. Immediately 
all was darkness, and he suffered terribly, until he told 
the Lord that it was enough ; the tobacco must go. He 
has won a great victory, and God blessed him greatly. 
He has used the filthy stuff for forty-four years A few 
days ago he gave himself entirely to the Lord, but had 
no idea what God would require of him ; but he says 
it is very little in comparison to what Jesus has done for 
him. One brother had been praying for heart purity, 
and last Sunday morning he was awakened by three 
knocks ; and it seemed to him that the Savior stood by 
him, and blessed him, and told him to go to a sinner 
and invite him to become a Christian. I do not remem- 
ber to have been in a place where the Christians work 
any better than here. One young man said he had 
given up all but one thing — a euchre-deck, which he 
kept in the bottom of his trunk for fear his mother 
would know it. He thought he must not waste it be- 
5 



66 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

cause of the money invested ; but was enabled to con- 
sume it in the flames yesterday. He said he would not 
take twenty-dollars for the blessing he had already. 

''Sunday, 19th: Good meeting all day. Afternoon, 
had an experience-meeting along the line of conver- 
sion. One was converted in an old sawmill, one out in 
the dark alone, one at the family altar, one all alone at 
home, one by an old hickory stump, two in schoolhouse 
and lost their strength ; and many others at Church 
altars. Some could not tell zvhere nor when, but hiozv 
they are saved. One was converted forty years ago, 
and has been wandering in the wilderness all the time 
until last Sunday, when God saved him. 

''Monday evening: Yesterday a large number of 
envelopes were given out to those who wished to help 
pay the expenses of the meeting. To-night they were 
taken up. One old brother said he put $1 into his 
envelope, and then he thought that was not enough, 
and added 50 cents more. Then he did not feel satis- 
fied, and so put in enough to make it $2 ; then it came 
to him that $3 was jiist right, so he put in the other $1, 
and sealed up the envelope. One envelope contained 
30 cents, wath a neatly-written note requesting us to 
pray for the writer, an unpardoned sinner. 

"Friday, January 22d : Meetings closed yesterday 
with an 'All-day Jubilee Service.' There were sixteen 
forward in the evening, most of whom confessed con- 
version. Altogether some over one hundred have 
bowed at the altar, most of whom have come out clearly 
for Christ. Some forty or fifty professed sanctification. 
We never saw so much work done in so short a time. 
It seems like good foundation work, too! 'Praise God, 
from whom all blessings flow.' They paid us more 



Li^e: of Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 67 

than $60, leaving us, after expenses are met, $33, to 
be applied on our salary at Montague. Our stay at 
Brother Paddock's has been very pleasant indeed, and 
altogether we have had the least hard pulling of any 
work we have ever been in. The people have been 
very profuse in their thanks and expressions of regard 
for us and our work, recognizing the hand of God in 
it from beginning to end. Yesterday morning a Con- 
gregational brother told how that a brother asked him 
to attend the meetings, and he said it was of no use ; 
his heart was so hard. But the brother came again 
and again, and finally persuaded him to come ; and now 
he praised God that he had come. Two or three even- 
ings ago he and his wife arose, stating they were not 
satisfied that they were saved ; but when pressed to go 
forward, they did not wish to, for fear of hurting the 
feelings of their pastor, who was present. 

"A Congregational lady said, after she reached home 
the night before, her little daughter asked her why she 
did not go forward ; and she told her she had been a 
Christian for years, and did not feel it her duty to go. 
'Then,' said the child, 'why did n't you stand up and 
tell it ?' And she said after this she would stand up and 
tell of it. 

"Montague. — Young man said he had never enjoyed 
himself so much as during the past week. He used 
to vow, to himself, to stop sinning, but had no strength 
to carry out his vows ; but now he feels that God helps 
him. To-day he was terribly tempted by his old com- 
panions ; but God gave him strength to resist them. 

"A lady said she thanked God for what He had 
done for her; it seemed like going from a dark room 
into a very light one. Sister Bush, converted at Mon- 



68 A Hi:ro o:^ Faith and Praye:r. 

tague, a year since, said that she owed a man $5 for 
house-rent, and because he had not treated her just 
as she thought he should, she had determined to make 
him wait for his money, if, indeed, he ever got it at 
all. But as soon as converted she hurried to pay the 
debt, and, though it took their last $5, she went home 
feeling wonderfully blessed of God. 

''Monday, November 8, 1886: We have been labor- 
ing with Brother Odium at Kalamo for the past two 
weeks. God has been preciously near and blessed 
abundantly in the sanctification of believers and the 
conversion of sinners. Nine Church members came 
forward, one evening, and professed conversion. One 
old man came up the aisle saying, 'I am coming, Lord, 
I am coming,' and dropped upon his knees, and pleaded 
with God for mercy until he received it, and then arose 

and made his confession. Mr. K preached a strong 

sermon on church singing being led by ungodly choirs 
and choristers ; was terribly tempted at the close. Come 
to find out, the chorister, a good moral man, was not 
a Christian. He went home and said he could never 
lead the singing again, even in Sunday-school, without 
religion, and came forward a night or two after, and 
was clearly converted. Sunday evening a young lady 
said she went to a show at the hall the night before, 
and felt she did wrong; God had forgiven her, and she 
would not do it again. It was nothing but tumbling 
through barrels, and such foolish things. She did n't 
get the worth of her money. 

''Richland. — Brother French, pastor : He was con- 
verted through the influence of the Christian man he 
worked for, rather than any preaching. He came back 
to this charge because he believed God wanted hirn to 



I 



Life: oi^ Rzv. M. W. Knapp. 69 

build a church at Richland. He had a place offered 
him where they pay $200 or $300 more than they do 
here. Used our magic-lantern, for the first time here, 
to good advantage. One little girl told her neighbor 
that 'Mamma was so much better ever since she went 
clear up in front at the concert.' He mother was hap- 
pily converted at the altar. Some nice young men 
were converted, and began working immediately for 
others. Opposition was more marked than at any other 
place we have been. One young man left the house, 
cursing and swearing during the meeting, one evening. 
One influential 'man said a great deal against the work 
from the beginning; it made him mad every time he 
came, and that was nearly every night. He talked 
real mean to Martin, telling him he was doing more 
harm than good. The last night of our service there, 
his wife pleaded with and prayed for him until two 
in the morning, when he yielded, and God sweetly 
saved his soul. That morning, just after breakfast, he 
and his wife came to our boarding-place, and told us 
all about it, and O, how he wept; so much that it was 
with the greatest difficulty he could talk at all ! There 
v^ere some clear cases of sanctification at this place. 
All glory to God." 

ENTERS EVANGELISTIC WORK. 

The reader will remember that Brother Knapp, in 
his account of his sanctification, which was written 
four years after the event, mentions a call to evangehstic 
work. This is a later account of the matter : 

"The impression made upon my mind to engage in 
evangelistic work continued to deepen. I said, 'If this 
be of God, I will receive a call from the Church to en- 



JO A Hero of Faith and Praykr. 

gage in it.' I soon found, however, that our beloved 
Church does not yet officially recognize this office, and 
hence has no appointed agencies to call to this work. 

"I found that the work was Scriptural, and that the 
Holy Ghost, in this and other generations, had, in a 
marvelous manner, set His seal upon it. 

"Then came invitation after invitation from thi 
brethren to assist them in the very work to which 
we felt God was calling us. To some of these we were 
able to respond, and, both on our own charges and in 
these places, souls were converted and believers sanc- 
tified. 

"Thus we reached a point where the Spirit's voice, 
the call of the Church through the many invitations to 
the work, fruitage in the work, and the open door, all 
combined to convince us that the call was from God. 
We, therefore, at our last Conference, asked to be set 
free for this work. The Conference granted the re- 
quest, and, by passing the following, further gave its 
sanction and set its seal upon the act : 

'' 'WhkrEas, Our brother, M. W. Knapp, has taken 
a certificate of location, in order to engage in evangel- 
istic work ; and 

'* 'Whe:reas, We believe that the Holy Spirit has 
led him to this step; therefore, be it 

" 'Resolved, That we shall be glad to readmit Brother 
Knapp at any time when the way shall open for his re- 
turn to us. 

'* 'That, knowing the gifts, graces, and usefulness 
of Brother Knapp and his wife, we do cordially com- 
mend them to the fellowship and co-operation of God's 
people everywhere, and to the blessing of God in their 
work.' " 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



71 



Brother Knapp added : 

"Inexpressible thankfulness is felt towards all who 
have helped to lead to this sweet work and blessed 
life. But unto Him, and Him alone, 'that hath loved 
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and 
hath made us kings and priests unto God and His 
Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and 
ever. Amen.' " 



CHAPTER VI. 

A LIFE OF FAITH.— REVIVAL WORK.— TRIED 

AND TEMPTED AND TRUE.— BOOKS 

AND REVIVALIST. 

**The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful 
in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happmess. ' ' 

— Addison. 

* ' Faith is that conviction upon the mind of the truth of the promises 
and threatenings of God made known in the Gospel ; of the certain reality 
of the rewards and punishments of the life to come, which enables a man, 
in opposition to all the temptations of a corrupt world to obey Godwin expec- 
tation of an invisible reward hereafter." — Dr. S. Clark. 

"Never yet did there exist a full faith in the Divine Word (by whom 
light as well as immortality was brought into the world), which did not 
expand the intellect, while it purified ; which did not multiply the aims and 
objects of the understanding, while it fixed and simplified those of the 
desires and passions." — Coleridge. 

In the preface to the memorials of his mother, 
Augustus Hare writes : 

*'It has been rightly observed that no real interest 
can be derived from a memoir which tells less than 
'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ;' 
and thus, while in collecting the fragments which re- 
main from my loved and lost ones I am chiefly urged 
by the desire of making others feel the influence of the 
sunshine of love which has lighted up my past life, 
I have striven to make m^y story no mere eulogy of 
those of whom I have written, but to give such traits 
of their living, acting reality as shall present a true 
portrait to the reader's mind." 

72 



Lii^e: o^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 73 

This is my ambition in this biography. I want to 
paint Brother Knapp as he was, with his struggles 
and trials, with his family about him, and his heroic 
work weighing him down, and the devil tempting and 
trying him, and men too willing to rail at him and 
wound his already lacerated heart. It is in such a life- 
like setting that Brother Knapp, *'a hero of faith," will 
be seen as he was, and as such his sweet memory should 
be perpetuated. 

Miss Bessie Queen, one of Brother Knapp's as- 
sistants, and now joined with Mrs. Knapp as manager 
of the Revivalist, writes of this precious brother as 
follows : 

"In every age God has had some who would dare 
to look up to Him and trust Him, and step out on the 
promises ; and in every instance their faith was hon- 
ored, because heaven and earth shall pass away before 
one jot or tittle of His Word shall be broken. 

''Years ago, when only a young man in the ministry, 
Brother Knapp felt that God's servants should go out 
and work for Him gratuitously, as a love-of¥ering to 
Jesus, and that He would pay 'whatsoever was right.' 
Shortly after these convictions came upon him he 
asked for a location in the Conference that he might 
enter the evangelistic fields, and God gave him great 
liberty, and souls were born into the kingdom, and 
others sanctified, and believers were built up ; but never 
once, in arranging for meetings, did he say, 'I will come 
for so much money and my expenses.' It was always, 
'If God so leads, I will be there;' and he trusted Him 
to lay upon the hearts of the people just the amount 
that he needed, and God always answered. He always 
said the promise, 'Bread shall be given him, and his 
waters shall be sure,' was divine, and God would stand 



74 



A He:ro Of Faith and Prayer. 



by it. He was not looking for worldly pleasures, po- 
sitions, or honors, or anything of the world. He said 
that we were 'pilgrims and strangers ;' simply passing 
through this country, and all we needed was a place 
to lay our heads, a little to eat and wear, and time to 
lay on our faces for lost souls, and take them along 
with us to heaven. As he grew older this habit of 
taking everything to God and trusting Him to supply 
every need became more fixed and continuous, and he 
would launch out deeper and deeper in faith." 

In this spirit this man of God went out. So differ- 
ent from that of many evangelists that we know of ! We 
can hardly speak of the methods of some ; but the 
matter is between them and their God. Certainly 
Brother Knapp was clear and clean ; this may be why 
God so tried him and then so blessed him. Let others 
tell the story: 

''This day, December 21, 1884, deeply deploring 
past indifference, I renew my covenant with Almighty 
God. I promise to follow fully the directions of His 
Word and Spirit in everything, with the understanding 
revealed by Him that duty is to be m^ade, — ist, Plain; 
2d, Desirable; 3d, Fear is to be banished; 4th, God 
is to care for consequences. So help me God. — M. W. 
Knapp. 

"February 24, 1885. — This works well. 

"February 14, 1887. — This works well. 

"April 19, 1890. — This works well. 

"November 30, 1885. — Some Churches, like the tor- 
turing instruments of the Romans, cramp the preacher 
to a small salary, and then stretch him out until the 
bands crack over a broad area of work. No wonder 
God do n't bless them. 

"August 26, 1886. — Yesterday was given me the 




Bessie Queen Standley. 



Lii^K OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 75 

Eighteenth Psalm, and it was a refreshing shower to 
my weary soul. To-day was remarkably impressed, 
'Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.' It was applied to 
me. The Spirit seemed to say, 'Whatsoever you do 
shall prosper.' The secret of this is. He has said, Xo 
I am with you alway.' I claim the promise, and expect 
just the needful prosperity. 

''August 31, 1886. — Yesterday we were impressed 
to pray for knowledge in regard to our future work. 
The answer to all three was. Go into the evangelistic 
work. My answer was, 'I will enlighten your darkness.' 
'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature,' with a mighty emphasis on all the 
world. These words seemed also repeated to me as 
clearly as any I ever heard : 'You better believe I want 
you to leave, and you must not say no when I tell you 
to go.' This was followed by a blessed baptism of the 
Spirit that melted wonderfully, and also a great hunger- 
ing for and filling with love divine. I am so glad that 
my once offended Father is reconciled, and deigns to 
come and talk with His child face to face. 

"March 22, 1887. — God has in many ways set His 
seal to this work, and my convictions evangelistic- 
ward are being daily strengthened. I know that He is 
leading. 

"Williamston, April 25, 1887. — I now renew my 
covenant. Temptations have been coming like a flood ; 
but the Lord lifts up a standard against them. I have 
been passing through another great and profitable 
period of heart-searching. Humiliating revelations 
have been made, and confessions also. I am glad that 
it came before the day of judgment. Souls are being 
converted, sanctified, or both, every day. Praise God! 

"Henrietta, July 4, 1887. — Open air in the woods 



^6 A Hero of Faith and Praye:r. 

for a 'tidal wave.' Mind called to and greatly en- 
couraged by Hymn No. 30, Song of J. & E. The Spirit 
applied part of St. John, seventeenth chapter. Was led 
to look for light. God answered. First. He taught 
me that I was to be still more explicit on the hoHness 
line. Second. Use more illustrations from life and na- 
ture in my sermons. Third. Helped me to see that 
my motives were clear in His work. Fourth. Prom- 
ised to give me a mouth and wisdom that all of my 
adversaries could not gainsay or resist. 'Glory!' 
Fifth. Taught me that I am to be like the oak, firm; 
hke the maple, sweet; like the ash, useful; Hke the 
hickory, strong, but yielding to God ; like the ant, 
'busy;' and like the flies, 'quick.' As this day is kept 
to commemorate our independence as a Nation, so it 
is to be kept by me to commemorate my independence 
of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Day closed with 
a rich blessing. Jesus comes and fills my soul." 

"Eaton Circuit. — The Tord has been pleased to 
graciously visit the people of South Eaton Church. Rev. 
M. W. Knapp held meetings for about two weeks with 
great success ; over one hundred persons were at the 
altar seeking pardon, and found it. The afternoon 
meetings were well attended, at which believers in 
Christ were exhorted to seek the blessed experience 
of a pure heart. Some of our brethren have thrown 
away tobacco and pipe, and have determined to be clean 
Christians. Since the services over $100 have been sub- 
scribed for the purpose of building sheds. Paint has 
been purchased to paint the church, and we are look- 
ing forward with great hope to the future. A local band 
has been organized, consisting of about twenty mem- 
bers, nearly all young converts. Over forty have joined 
our Church on probation; others are undecided. The 



Life: 01^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 77 

spirit of love and harmony between the members of the 
Churches here is excellent. May we continue to live 
in the spirit of the Master!"— J. W. McAllister. 

"DeWitt. — The twenty-first of December a series of 
meetings commenced at Olive Church. The evangel- 
istic services of our dear brother, Rev. M. W. Knapp, 
were secured and enjoyed for two weeks. He clearly, 
forcibly, and sweetly presented Bible truth, illustrated 
the ways of life and death by charts, and the journey 
from Egypt to Canaan by a map. His talks to the 
children, and lantern pictures, were very instructive and 
impressive. As results to date, twenty have professed 
to be converted or reclaimed, and quite a number have 
entered into the Canaan experience of perfect love. The 
Holy Spirit, in His quickening and awakening power, 
was manifestly present at every service. On Sunday, at 
the morning service, a most remarkable baptism of love 
and tenderness fell upon all hearts as the Church knelt 
at the altar and consecrated themselves anew for serv- 
ice. Twelve were received on probation, and eight bap- 
tized. A local band was organized, which will assist 
the pastor in conserving and carrying on the work so 
well begun." — William Taylor. 

"Reading. — Rev. M. W. Knapp, evangelist, of Al- 
bion, Mich., has been assisting me in revival services 
for the past two weeks. He is a consecrated, earnest, 
Christian worker, fearless in presenting truth which 
hits the cold or lukewarm professor of religion, as well 
as that which hits those who make no profession of 
religion. His charts and magic-lantern for children add 
much to the effectiveness of his preaching. The charge 
is fortunate that secures his services. The work done 
has been of the most thorough kind. Twenty or more 
witness that 'the blood of Jesus Christ His Son 



78 A Hero 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

cleanseth from all sin.' Several children give clear evi- 
dence of conversion, six adults testify to the forgive- 
ness of sin, and general conviction rests upon the peo- 
ple. Sunday night it is estimated there were five hun- 
dred people in the rink where the services were held. 
The meetings are to be continued this week." — C. W. 
Jones, Pastor. 

''Spring Lake. — For twelve days, ending December 
19th, this Church has enjoyed the presence and labors 
of M. W. Knapp and wife. Their kind and loving 
spirit and faithful preaching have endeared them, to us 
all. As a result of their earnest work the Church is 
greatly quickened. A number of beHevers have been 
sanctified, some wanderers reclaimed, and over thirty 
have started in the new life, mostly members of the 
Sunday-school. Sixteen of the number have already 
joined on probation, and will be immediately formed 
into a class for religious training. A '^Methodist Al- 
liance' has also been organized among the young people 
of the Church, which promises to be a great power for 
good." — J. W. Rawlinson. 

''Eaton. — The special services are closed. Over one 
hundred were at the altar for pardon, and quite a num- 
ber professed full salvation. Rev. M. W. Knapp as- 
sisted the pastor. 

"Stevensville, November 21, 1888. — Another period 
of temptation and victory just past. I am so glad that 
Jesus teaches me. What a school. What a Teacher ! 
After weeks of suffering with rheumatism, it seem.s good 
again to be able to be in the field. I have the assurance 
of success of the paper, final success of the books, and 
of revival publication work. The Lord will lead in His 
own wise way. The work here is beginning right. 
Glory to Jesus !" 



Li^e: oi^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. jq 

This is the first mention in his diary anywhere of 
his paper or his books. But this humble village pas- 
tor, so intensely busy and constantly rushing out here 
and there into revival work, had had the holy ambition 
to venture upon authorship for the glory of Jesus ; and 
soon after he founded a paper to spread the knowledge 
of full salvation for his adorable Lord. 

What nerve ! What daring ! What venturesome 
faith this meant ! And what prayer and care and toil 
and tears ! 

His first book was "Christ Crowned Within." With 
characteristic daring of reverence, he dedicated it "Unto 
the King, Eternal Immortal, Invisible." In the 
"Preface," which was written December i, 1885, he 
writes : "This book has been written among the multi- 
tudinous duties of a busy pastorate, and the author 
claims to have done simply 'what he could.' It is hoped 
that the reader will 

* Clothe with life the weak intent, 
Let it be the thing that 's meant. '^ 

"Should any harm be the outcome of this effort, to 
the writer be all the blame ; if any good, to God be all 
the glory.— M. W. Knapp." 

He says elsewhere: "It was but natural, after I was 
sanctified, that under the Spirit's leadings I should wish 
to help others in the way I myself had been blessed. 
God filled me with messages, which, like pent-up fire, 
must find expression. I wrote because He filled me so 
full I could not help it. He showed me the great center 
and mainspring of a holy Hfe is Christ crowned within 
without a rival. That thought took possession of me. 
I thought on it, read on it, experienced it, preached it, 
until it finally took the shape of my first book, of which 



8o -"^ Hero of Faith axd Prayer. 

21,000 copies have gone out on their mission of light, 
and love, and power." 

But what publisher would run the risk of publishing 
the first volume of an obscure ^Methodist preacher, un- 
known among authors? He wrote by sweat of brain; 
he published by sweat of soul; for he waited a year for 
the money, and then sold his household goods at 
auction to procure the means to pubhsh it and handle 
it himself. How many precious books which the world 
could ill afford to spare have thus hung trembhngly in 
their birth-hour ! How many young and unknown but 
most deserving authors have had the Gethsemane be- 
fore they reached their fame ! 

Then, as if this was not enough, this ''Hero of Faith 
and Prayer" determined to launch a religious paper, 
which should be clean, free from worldly advertise- 
ments, on full-salvation and revival line, to keep people 
stirred up. Judged from a purely human standpoint, 
it was an utterly chimerical and foolish enterprise. It 
takes money to found and run a paper. ]\Iost editors 
of religious papers want a board of rich trustees and 
stockholders to bank on, and a whole denomination of 
Churches at their back, and every preacher to swing 
the denominational lash over the members and force 
them to subscribe ; and then they trim the truth and 
dilute their messages to tickle the carnal appetite of 
their readers, and advertise ''pink pills" and "soothing 
syrups," and "colic cures," and charge three prices for 
the paper to get the money to make the thing go. 

Nothing is more disgusting to a thoughtful soul 
than the perpetual wail of want and poverty going up 
from these papers, when we reflect how they are run. 
But here is a man in the extreme of poverty, rich only 
in faith, and having no backer but God, determined to 



LiFK OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 8i 

have a paper without advertisements that shall cham- 
pion the most unpopular thing in the world, "undefiled 
religion" and "true holiness ;" and he starts the paper 
in his mother's kitchen, which is now known and felt 
around the world. Many of the rivals of the Revivalist 
would be fortunate to have its subscription-list of 
twenty-five thousand ; and many editors who have 
hurled their censures and criticisms at Brother Knapp 
would better show a like faith and a like success, or 
meekly hold their peace. 

HIS PRAYER. 

Here is a prayer for himself and the readers of the 
Revivalist, once printed at the head of the first column : 

"Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, accept our 
praises for salvation, full and free, and for all the vic- 
tories of the past and the triumphs which, through Thy 
power, are near at hand. As writers and readers, we 
confess our utter inability and unworthiness. Wilt 
Thou not, in the writing and reading of this paper, re- 
veal Thyself? Use Thou the weak to confound the 
mighty ; and so instruct and save and fully sanctify 
through Thy truth, which shines from these pages, that 
it may be felt that the good done is not by human might 
nor power, but by the Holy Ghost. Thine shall be the 
glory forever. Amen." 

Here is an editorial telling why he did not insert 
worldly ads. : 

**WHY I DO N'T INSERT WORLDLY ADS. IN THE REVI- 
VALIST. 

"I have been criticised for rejecting worldly ads. 
from the Revivalist, when they would largely meet its 
expense, and enable us at once to make it a weekly at 

6 



82 A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

its proportionate low price. The following are some of 
my reasons, any one of which, if true, compels the 
course I am taking. If they are mistakes, kindly cor- 
rect me. 

"i. Extravagant statements and cuts of most 
worldly advertisers. Pictures of actors, baseball 
catchers, partly-dressed and worldly-dressed people, and 
kindred cuts, are the rule with such advertisers. 

"2. The utter unreliability of many goods advertised. 
I have not time to look them up and learn their merits, 
and feel I have no right to open an avenue for sharks 
to deceive my readers. 

''3. The Revivalist is read largely on the Sabbath, 
and I am not clear in thrusting worldly business propo- 
sitions before my readers on that day. 

"4. The Revivalist is my pulpit. Its mission is to 
proclaim the printed gospel, the same as Church pulpits 
the oral gospel ; hence, I feel that nothing should enter 
it which does not further it. My commission does not 
read, 'Go ye into all the world and publish patent pills, 
and boom bicycles, and balsam, and baking-powder,' 
etc., etc., etc. ; but, 'Go, . . . proclaim the gospel,' 
and I have promised God and man to 'give myself 
wholly to the work of the ministry.' Advertisers have 
no lack of avenues through which to reach the people 
with their wares. 

"5. If I can not have faith in God to help meet the 
expenses without depending on a scheme which has the 
objections above mentioned, how can I expect God to 
use me to inspire faith in other people? 

"For these and other reasons I can not at present 
accept worldly ads., and believe that God would rather 
my paper would remain a fire-baptized monthly than be 
made a weekly with such secularities, and that, when 



Li^K oi^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 83 

the time comes to issue weekly, He will give the faith 
to so do, and some way see that expenses are made 
with no compromise on this line. 

''NOTICE: 

"l. That the above has no reference to paid notices 
in harmony with hoHness. 

"2. Should the Revivalist die because of its loyalty 
to these convictions, it will be a willing martyr to its 
faith, and can be pointed to as a warning monument of 
the folly of one who trusted God, with no reliance on 
the sale of patent pills. 

''3. That it is designed in no way to reflect on the 
conscientiousness of good people who accept such ad- 
vertising. They may have more or less light on this 
subject than I have. 

"If more, then maybe they will shed it on my path; 
if less, may welcome what may here be shed on theirs. 
In either case, they are to be loved instead of lashed. 

''Now you know some of the reasons for the course 
I am taking. Do you sigh, or say. Amen?" 

Sister ''Bessie" well says : "When the Revivalist was 
first born it was a faith venture ; and God saw it 
through, and used it to awaken hearts and lead them 
into the light. Even now we receive letters from people 
who began taking it from the first ; and hundreds and 
hundreds of souls will walk the golden streets who 
were redeemed through reading its columns. The cir- 
culation kept increasing and increasing; and the bills 
grew heavier and heavier; but God always sent the 
money, and never once, although it took great faith, 
was he disappointed, or a reproach brought upon the 
cause of holiness." 



84 A Hero 01^ Faith and Prayi:r. 

Soon after he entered the evangeHstic work he pro- 
duced his second book, "Out of Egypt mto Canaan," 
the copyright of which bears the date of 1887, in the 
autumn of which year he left the pastorate. It was 
dedicated "Unto the 'Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' 
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 
who gave His Son for our redemption, and His Spirit 
for our regeneration, cleansing, and enduement ; by 
whose grace and counsels this book has been written; 
and unto His blood-bought ones." 

He thus tells us how he came to write it : "In my 
reading, I came across Dr. Pentecost's 'Out of Egypt.' 
I read it with eagerness and enjoyment, but felt it 
stopped far short of the Christian's privilege and the 
Bible standard. I saw that God not only brought God's 
people 'out of Egypt,' but 'into Canaan,' the land of 
complete liberty. A series of Bible-readings opened 
up to me, which God greatly blessed and used in lead- 
mg many people into Canaan's fair and sunny clime. 
I became full of the thought until it flowed from my 
pen in a series of articles for one of our papers, when 
it was suggested that they were well adapted for book- 
form ; and, finally, under God's leading and blessing, 
they took the shape of 'Out of Egypt into Canaan,' 
which, so far as my knowledge goes, has led more peo- 
ple into the Canaan experience than any other book I 
have ever written or handled." Twenty-eight thou- 
sand of these books have been published, and most of 
them are now out on their soul-saving mission. 

Thus in ten short years this young minister, who 
was at first so unpromising in appearance that his first 
Churches were disgusted at the sight of him, had be- 
come a pastor of rare success, an author of two books 
which have won encomiums of praise from the best 



hi^^H o^ Rnv. M. W. Knapp. 85 

minds of the Church, and an altogether unusual suc- 
cess in the kingdom of books. He had also launched a 
paper that was destined to be one of the leading papers 
in the world of its class ; and also had started a book- 
publishing work that finally became first in its field; and 
with marked success he had entered the evangelistic 
work. Not one minister in a thousand of any de- 
nomination in America has had such a record. 

There are people who are foolish enough to try to 
account for all this on natural principles. I am free to 
say that I do not. If the dear lips of Brother Knapp 
could break their sealed silence and speak, they would 
promptly rebuke such an explanation of his success. 
He would be the last man in the world to say that it 
was all due to the splendor of his natural gifts. He 
would say, with reverent face and gleaming eye, "It 
was God with me and in me that made me adequate for 
the task." To the Holy Spirit who regenerated him, 
and called him, and sanctified him, and filled him, and 
endued him with power, let us give the glory. 



CHAPTER VII. 
GOING DOWN INTO THE DEEPS. 

* * We are to take no counsel with flesh and blood ; give ear to no vain 
cavils, vain sorrows and wishes ; to know that we know nothing; that the 
worst and crudest to our eyes is not what it seems ; that we have to receive 
whatsoever befalls us as sent from God above, and say, * It is good and wise 
— God is great !' * Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.' . . . De- 
nial of self, annihilation of self, — this is yet the highest wisdom that heaven 
has revealed to our earth." — Carlyle. 

" A man can, even here, be with God, so long as he bears God within 
him. We should be able to see without sadness our most holy wishes fade 
like sunflowers, because the sun above us still forever beams, eternally 
makes new, and cares for all : and a man must not so much prepare him- 
self for eternity as plant eternity in himself : eternity, serene, pure, full of 
depth, full of light and of all else." — Richter. 

I find in the Minutes about this dear brother's Hfe 
that about the time covered by this chapter he passed 
through a period of ill-health that nearly cost him his 
life; also severe financial testings came, and various 
trials of sickness in the family, which put him down 
deep in the will of God. "During the two years of ill- 
health," says one, "when his life was despaired of, he 
still worked on with heroic faith, and accomplished as 
much as many ministers do in a lifetime." 

This story shall now be told in the words of Mr. 
and Mrs. Knapp, from their diaries : 

"January i, 1889. — A new year full of cheer is now 
at hand. Watch-night service. Spirit of deep conse- 
cration ; several seekers of perfect love. Am at rest, 
God is reconciled, the blood cleanses, the Spirit fills 

86 



Life: of R^v. M. W. Knapp. ^j 

and keeps. May this be the best year of my hfe ! 
Rheumatism is cured, but weak hmgs have for a few 
days troubled me. I know that God can strengthen 
them, and will, if it be for His glory. 

"Algansee, January 5, 1889. — Meetings here full of 
interest. One week has passed. People are getting 
stirred. Some have claimed full salvation. Seven have 
sought pardon. God has humbled me anew, and keeps 
baptizing me with His Spirit. Cora Winchell knelt at 
the altar for cleansing. This afternoon she said that 
the Spirit asked, 'Will you confess it?' and said she felt 
she must or gi^ve up all. She did so, and was blessed. 
Praise the Lord ! 

"January 6, 1889. — Preached this morning from 
'Abounding Grace.' Had little liberty, but some pro- 
fessed perfect love, and three pardon. To God be all 
the glory! My body is weak, but my soul is resting 
in the consciousness of full salvation." 

In the following entry in his diary he speaks of a 
book that afterward appeared under the title ''Revival 
Tornadoes," of which we will speak hereafter. 

"Henrietta, March 30, 1889. — Was thirty-six the 
27th. I am writing Brother Weber's Life. Began Mon- 
day. God blessed me in it as really as ever in revival 
work. It is all of Him. When I asked God what to 
do, for a long time a pen would appear before me. He 
answered my prayer yesterday about a business matter. 
I am resolved to write more in my journal. It seems 
as if God is going to prosper the work He is impelling 
us to do. I want to be just like Jesus. He is changing 
me into His image. 

"Henrietta, March 31, 1889. — March 5th my phys- 
ical condition compelled me to resign the Band super- 
intendency. Prior to that I had given up preaching. 



88 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

To-day nas been a restful one in most respects. Have 
had a struggle with Satan, whom Jesus defeats. Am 
learning more and more the worth of prayer. 

"April I, 1889. — God has kept me through another 
day. My heart has burned while reading Mrs. Palmer's 
works. A little bird has come in to-night, and wants 
to stay all night. The book continues to open to me 
nicely ; it is all of God. When at the Grand Rapids 
Band meeting, I was asked, 'How are you?' My answer 
was, 'AH well but my body,' to which Brother Rawlin- 
son responded, 'Well, that is the smallest part of you.' 

"Henrietta, April 2, 1889. — The devil has often tried 
to make me feel downcast by suggesting, 'You are not 
appreciated ; the brethren think you are in the way of 
the work ;' and also by bringing up insinuations against 
them, thus making me feel miserable. I have been 
shown to-day of the Lord that this is all of Satan, and 
that, as the accuser of the brethren, he delights to lie 
about them and me. When he is defeated, he leaves for 
a season. Praise God ! I have received a lot more of 
valuable matter from Brother Weber for the book. 

"Henrietta, April 24, 1889. — I am prayerfully weigh- 
ing the invitation to go into revival work again. I am 
progressing nicely with 'Tornadoes.' God helps won- 
derfully. I believe He will use it for His glory. I 
have been clearly shown two things: ist. I have not 
taken enough physical exercise ; 2d. I have leaned too 
much on human helps. O, how stupid I am to learn 
life's great lessons ! 

"Studying up Brother Weber is doing me much 
good. Anna is a great deal of company for me. Our 
folks are very kind, and do what they can to make 
my stay here comfortable. 

"Henrietta, April 26, 1889. — ^^^d is pouring out His 



hi^E OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 89 

Spirit upon me. Glory to His name ! I feel assured 
of the success of the work, and of the Revivalist, al- 
though can not see far ahead. O Lord, if they be of 
Thee, bless them and prosper them ; if not, paralyze 
them ! Amen. May Revivalist out on time. Thanks 
to publishers at Albion. They are doing splenaidly. 
Mrs. Knapp did her part well. 

''Evening : This morning, after I had written the 
above, a person handed me $10, and said, 'This is for 
the Revivalist.' I feel as if that is a pledge of its being 
of God, and will carry it through. Glory to His name ! 
Am gaining in strength; God shall have it. All glory 
to His name ! 

"Henrietta, April 2"/, 1889. — Worked on Weber's 
'Over the Ocean' to-day. I did not enjoy writing that 
as much as the revival part. He has material on it 
for a splendid book of travels. Renew my covenant 
with God to-day. 

"Anna went to town. I missed her. I think much of 
her company. Am praying about my work. Shall I con- 
tinue my present relation — write? Push books and 
papers? Evangelistic work in the field? The Lord will 
lead. Praise His name ! 

"March i, 1889. — For some reason, then unknown, 
I was in great heaviness to-day. Have felt that some- 
thing trying was coming. Received word from Brother 

Weber that he and Brother C are not pleased with 

chapter of book read I thought of the 'Broken Bridge' 
at once. I have had a feeling of heavy, cutting anguish 
to-day, such as I have hitherto known but little of. 

Dear L is also in the furnace. O Father, melt and 

fashion us according to Thy will ! Thou art at our 
helm ; steer where Thou wilt. Thou art even now work- 
ing Thy will in us, and Thine is the praise. Thy deal- 



90 



A He:ro of Faith and Prayer. 



ings in such days as this will yet appear more blest to 
our good than in our more sunny hours. My experi- 
ence to-night is : 

* I know not what awaits me, — 
God kindly veils mine eyes, 
And at each step of my onward way 
He makes new scenes arise. 

Where He may lead I '11 follow, 

My trust in Him repose. 
And every hour in perfect peace 

I '11 sing ** He knows, He knows." ' 

''I can remember but one point in my life when I 
ever suffered as I do to-day, and that was when I got 

that awful letter from L before we were married. 

While I cast my burden on the Lord, and know that 
He cleanses and leads, there is still the deep pain left. 
I praise God in it all. 

''O Father, as Thou hast promised, lead us in a 
plain path, because of our enemies. I want to record 
right here that I believe God is going to give good 
success to the work He has committed to us, and that 
it will yet be obvious to all. Praise God for it ! Amen. 
Whether He wants me sick or well, poor or rich, on 
earth or in heaven. Amen. 

"O Father, uphold Lucy and give her the needed 
wisdom and grace to do Thy will and carry on her part 
of the work. Bless Anna, and, as she grows in years, 
as in the past months, may it be also in wisdom and 
likeness to Jesus. Give wisdom to so train John in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord that he may be, 
like the forerunner of Jesus, bold and aggressive, and 
at the same time, like the disciple Jesus loved, tender 
and loving! Be with father and mother, who are so 
kind to me here, and also at Albion. Bless Sister Rose 



Life: of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 



91 



and Ella with the riches of Thy grace. Save Bee and 
Rose and Amos from love of worldly gain, and make 
them fill their places in Thy kingdom. Arrest Charlie 

C in his career, and may he be true to the light 

given ! O, why is it that my pen runs this way to- 
night ? 

''May 2d. — Morning: I awoke with the conscious- 
ness of my Father's presence and power. I put my 
trust in Him. I shall never be counfounded. He has 
promised it, blessed be His name ! 

"Evening : A day of sharp thrusts from the devil, 
but of victory. 

"Henrietta, March 2, 1889. — Yesterday the question 
of our future work came up. Anna and I both prayed 
about it. There is a strong impression that God is 
leading in the pastorate for another year. Providential 
indications also point that way. Well, if God so leads, 
I '11 gladly follow. Paul, though an evangelist, staid as 
long as three years in one place. 

"Henrietta, May 6, 1889. — Yesterday, Sunday, was 
a blessed day. Soul blessed, body blessed. God is lead- 
ing, and I will praise Him. May I learn to be led by 
Him by the moment, hour, and day ! 

"Friday, loth. — Got another letter from Brother 
Weber last night. Matters remain about the same. I 
go to Albion to-morrow. Have had complete victory 
over sin. Am learning new lessons day by day. 

"Henrietta, June 13, 1889. — Have been here again 
nearly two weeks. Have to-day finished 'Revival Tor- 
nadoes.' Brother W writes that he likes it. Am 

still holding the matter before God. Expect to go to 
Albion to-morrow. Dreamed last night that some one 
spilt a pot of water on Anna's feet. It woke me up. 
God bless her ! She is increasing in wisdom and stature, 



^2 A H^Ro o:^ Faith and Prayer. 

and in favor with God and man. Praise God for such 
a child! Am saiHng under sealed orders. Don't know 
what nor where next ; but Jesus does, and that is 
enough. Glory to God ! He saves me and baptizes me 
with the Holy Ghost. He directed us to go on with 
the Revivalist. Soon after I had decided to go on naked 
faith and do it, M. G. came into the room and said 
(as she did not know about our struggle and decision), 
'Are you going on with the Revivalist?' 'Yes.' 'Then, 
here is $io for it,' she said; 'I have been keeping this 
money over a year. When I knelt at the family altar 
this morning the impression came to give it for the 
establishment of the Revivalist. I prayed for the im- 
pression to leave if I ought not to give it thus, but that 
it might grow stronger if it was right so to do. It has 
continued to deepen, and I know that it is the right 
thing to do.' Surely this is a seal which God has placed 
upon the Revivalist, owning it as His own paper. To 
Him be the praise ! Amen." 

The above-mentioned book was the "Life of Joseph 
Weber," the converted Catholic evangelist. Knapp 
wrote : "He turned cities upside-down wherever he went, 
making some mad, many sad, and many glad. He was 
ridiculed, opposed, and lied about. This awoke my 
sympathy and interest. I went to hear him. A great 
work of God attended his labors." This led Knapp to 
write the book "Revival Tornadoes," of which 15,000 
have been published. 

"June 8, 1889. — Yesterday was the thirteenth anni- 
versary of our marriage. God is blessing each line of 
work that He has committed to us. 

"Albion, July 17, 1890. — Lucy sick at Henrietta. 
Growing weaker. Children there too. God is blessing 
book and paper work. He saves me through and 



Life of Rfv.AI. W. Knapp. q^ 

through. He is going to do greater things, I beheve. 
A Training-school for gospel workers and an Evangel- 
istic Home is on my heart and in my head. It seems 
as if God put it there. I had rather be in partnership 
with Him than any one else, because I know Him bet- 
ter. He knows me better. He is so patient with me. 
He never can break down. His counsels are perfect. 
I agree to-night that if He will give me the building 
for the Home, to use it only for His glory and to put 
this or a similar statement on it, 'This building is a 
monument of the power and willingness of the loving 
Christ to answer prayer.' If it will please Him most to 
lead in this way, I would prefer it to a partnership build- 
ing. Am tempted some to be a little overanxious to- 
night ; hence, Satan, your trick is exposed. It seems 
to me that I never before seemed so entirely cut loose 
from every one and everything as to-night. I feel that 
God is an ocean upon which I am abandoned by all but 
Him in a sense, and that He majestically upholds the 
little ship, and will guide it on the most fruitful voyage 
which His infinite wisdom can devise. All glory to His 
name ! 

''July 22, 1890. — Day before yesterday I was taken 
with another relapse of the grippe ; sick yesterday. I 
was strongly drawn last night to ask God that, if it 
was His will and for His glory, to rebuke it. I re- 
ceived a wonderful manifestation of His presence in 
the night. It seemed as if heaven was at hand. I have 
felt no symptoms of the grippe since. To God be the 
glory ! I must more largely mention His power to heal. 

"Had a dream that made me feel that some sorrow 
was near. Shortly after Mrs. Knapp came very near 
dying; she had two sinking spells : then the Holy Ghost 
came upon her, and she sang : 'Praise the Lord, O my 



o^ A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

soul. Glory, hallelujah !' She said : 'It seems as if I 
have been at the threshold of eternity, and I saw Char- 
lie with a radiant face beckoning me to come.' 'I feel 
well for all worlds.' 'It seems as if my spirit was part 
way out of my body, and that an unseen power was pull- 
ing me up into heaven.' 

*'Reed City, August 8, 1890. — Camp-meeting. God 
is with us. Great victory this morning. About forty 
at the altar. A/[cCabe preached last night and this morn- 
ing at ten. I was tempted some about being put in 
between his speeches ; but the people prayed, the Holy 
Ghost came, and victory was given. I have the eight 
o'clock service here. Holiness is given a front seat. 
No gate-fees. A splendid people here at this camp- 
meeting. My subject at the first morning service was 
a Bible-reading on the Holy Spirit. Second, salvation 
talk on Jesus' prayer and Paul's prayer ; sanctification. 
Thirty-five came forward. Third, Cornelius. Sixty 
forward. Fourth, Jonah. Ninety forward. 

"Reed City, Saturday, 9th. — The meeting is moving 
on with power. The Holy Ghost is leading. Jesus 
wonderfully upholds all. Glory to His name ! My 
health remains about the same. Lucy continues to im- 
prove. Sunday morning I spoke on what sanctification 
is and is not. Brother Parson says that as many as 
one hundred and ninety came to the altar for sanctifi- 
cation and pardon. They had to clear the altar for the 
bishop's sermon. Monday afternoon I spoke on 'Con- 
secration.' " 

(What an awful mistake this was to turn away from 
the altar above a hundred seekers after God, to make 
room for the oratorical display of the sermon of a 
bishop ! This is glorifying a man and human oratory 



Life op Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



95 



''with a vengeance." It is too often done in holiness 
camp-meetings !) 

''Reed City, July 12th. — Praise God! This camp- 
meeting has been a succession of revival victories. 
Preachers and people have united with God to make 
it so. Glory to His name ! No record was kept, but 
from three to six hundred were on their knees for par- 
don or purity. 'Perfect Love : Its Importance, Its Pos- 
session, and What They Are Like.' 

"On my way home from Reed City I stopped over- 
night at the Ionia meeting. Presiding Elder Moors 
urged me to take the altar service, invite sinners to re- 
pent, and do anything else I wished. I did so, and 
about thirty were at the altar for victory. He also 
urged me to take the morning; and about the same 
number were then forward. To God be the praise ! 

"Monday morning, August i8th. — I awoke feeling 
that a crisis of some kind was impending. I was rest- 
less. I prayed, and the answer was, 'Lo, I am with 
you always,' and 'Though thou passest through the 
lire, it shall not burn thee.' I expected to hear that 
Lucy was worse ; and, sure enough, before noon the 
message came. The physician said she must die, — no 
hope ; and all thought so but dear Anna ; and her faith 
was much shaken. When I reached Jackson I was 
made to feel that if it was best for her and for the 
glory of God, He would heal her. I also felt that Anna's 
faith would pull her through. When I reached her, 
she had given up hope; but the Lord soon kindled it 
in her heart, and she, though ready, prepared to live. 
Anna and I felt that the doctor's medicines hindered, 
instead of helped, and we prayed that he might cease 
coming. The next morning was his last visit. After 



q6 a Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

he left she said, 'It seems now as if the last hindrance 
was out of the way, and now I can trust God to heal 
me.' She was wonderfully blessed, and began at once 
to gain. In twenty-four hours her cough was nearly 
gone, her fever nearly, and ulceration checked. She 
has been, and is, very weak ; but we feel that God is 
healing her. The following are among the promises 
which have been given us for her : 'According to thy 
faith;' 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give 
thee the desire of thine heart,' 'Nothing too hard for 
God :' 'He giveth power to the faint, and to them who 
have no might He increaseth strength.' I believe that 
the Lord is going to rebuke unbelief, and raise her up 
by His own power. 

"August 23d. — Lucy is slowly gaining, thank God ! 
The means we use are : Warm water injections ; cold 
water drink ; laying on of hands ; and, above all, the 
prayer of faith. 'They shall lay hands on the sick, 
and they shall recover.' Last night Anna said : 'I wish 
heaven was on earth. No, I do n't know as I do, either ; 
for I do n't believe I could be any happier than God 
makes me now.' I said, 'Anna, do you ever commit 
known sin?^ 'No, that would be awful for me to do, 
after all God has done for me. I sometimes make mis- 
takes though.' " 

(This dear child, so effectual in prayer, and such a 
comfort to her afflicted father, was not, at this time, 
quite twelve years old. How much religion can do 
for a child !) 

"In I Kings xx, Ben-hadad defied God and Israel, 
and, because of this, God defeated him. Unbelief in 
a like manner defies the restoration of Lucy. I look 
for its like defeat through Israel's God. Thus far He has 
given Scripture each day fitted to its peculiar exigen- 



Life of Rev. INI. W. Knapp. 



97 



cies. How He has comforted, guided, and upheld ! My 
heart this morning sang the following words. They 
came in response to the thought that it might yet be 
God's will to take Lucy to heaven : 

' Ride on, ride on, O will of God ! 

Though crushed beneath Thy feet, 
Yet still my soul shall gladly say. 
Thy triumphs all are sweet.' 

"I still confidently look for her recovery. 

"August 29th. — Praise God! Prayer still prevails, 
and Lucy is yet with us. Giants fever, nervous pros- 
tration, cough, ulceration, unbelief, led on by the grippe, 
have combined their forces and entered into a con- 
spiracy against her life. They have met with some 
severe repulses, but are not yet fully defeated. I look 
for their complete overthrow through the power of 
Him by whom all things are possible. 

"August 30th. — Lucy rested easily last night. She 
prayed this morning: 'O Lord, I thank Thee for this 
complete abandonment to Thee ; that I can find no point 
that is not all given up to Thee. We thank Thee for 
the many blessings Thou dost give unto us; yes, just 
give unto us ;' and much more which I can not recall. 

"August 30th, 2 A. M. — Lucy is resting well; some 
symptoms are improving. 'No good thing will He 
withhold from them that walk uprightly.' If health 
is a good thing, and we are walking uprightly, it shall 
be given. If it is not, I would not want it. 

"August 30th. — Lucy is about the same. Badly 
bloated ; but God is able to subdue that. She prayed : 
'O God, it seems monotonous to come to Thee again 
for help. We have come so many times ; but Thou 
hast shown us that it pleases Thee to help us, and so 
we come again. We thank Thee for a salvation that 
7 



q8 a Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

keeps from sin, that keeps every hour, that keeps day 
and night. That is the kind we want — one that keeps 
from sinning and keeps all the time.' Through God, 
I still look for her recovery. His will be done. Amen. 
''August 31st. — I have been sorely tempted about 
Lucy. She passed a hard night. Relief from pain did 
not come, as hitherto. O how it wrung my soul to 
see her patiently suffer agonies which I could not re- 
lieve ! Satan suggested to me, 'God is cruel to let 
her suffer, when He has the power to prevent it.' When 
I told her, she said : 'O, we know so little. He knows 
the reason, and it is all right.' 'Though He slay me, 
I will trust Him.' Again she said : 'I had rather go to 
heaven than anywhere else in the universe ; but I 
do n't want to sneak in. I want to go in His time 
and way.' This morning she said: 'This may be my 
last day. If I go, I do n't want any funeral sermon, 
but a salvation praise service, because a saint has 
reached heaven.' After a season of terrible suffering 
she said, 'I would be willing to live like this one million 
years if I could win one soul to Christ each year, only 
one ;' and then she playfully added, 'That do n't seem 
very ambitious, does it?' I continue to look unto the 
hills from whence my help cometh. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE FURNACE SEVEN TIMES HEATED. 

" Pain's furnace-heat within me quivers ; 
God's breath upon the flame doth blow, 
And all my heart in anguish shivers, 
And trembles at the fiery glow. 

' ( And yet I whisper 'As God will,' 
[ And in his hottest fire hold still. 

He comes and lays my heart all heated, 

On his hard anvil, minded so ; 
Yet in his own fair form to beat it, 

With his great hammer, blow by blow. 

Chorus. — 

He takes my softened heart and beats it ; 

The sparks fly off at every blow ; 
He turns it o'er and o'er, and heats it, 

And lets it cool, and makes it glow. 

Chorus. — 

He kindles for my profit, purely, 

Affliction's growing, fiery brand ; 
For all his heaviest blows are surely 

Inflicted by a Master hand. 

Chorus. — 

• I will not murmur at the sorrow, 
That only longer lived would be ; 
The end may come, and that to-morrow, 
When God hath wrought his will in me. 

( And so I whisper, * As God will,' 
And in his hottest fire hold still." 

—From the German 
99 

! nrn 



lOO A Hero oe Faith and Praykr. 

"For rapture of love is linked with the pain or fear of loss, 
And the hand that takes the crown must ache with many a cross ; 
Yet he who hath never a conflict, hath never a victor's palm, 
And only the toilers know the sweetness of rest and calm. 

Who would dare the choice, neither or both to know, 
The finest quiver of joy or the agony thrill of woe? 
Never the exquisite pain, then never the exquisite bliss. 
For the heart that is dull to that — can never be strung to this. 

Then hush ! O hush ! for the Father knows what thou knowest not, 
The need, and the thorn, and the shadow, linked with the fairest lot ; 
Knows the wisest exemption from many an unseen snare, 
Knows what will keep thee nearest, knows what thou couldst not bear. 

Hush ! O hush ! for the Father whose ways are true and just, 
Knoweth and careth and loveth, and waits for thy perfect trust ; 
The cup he is slowly filling, shall soon be full to the brim, 
And infinite compensations forever be found in Him. 

Hush ! O hush ! for the Father hath fullness of joy in store. 
Treasures of power and wisdom, and pleasures for evermore ; 
Blessing and honor and glory, endless, infinite bliss ; 
Child of his love and his choice, O canst thou not wait for this?" 

— F. R. Havergal. 

Yes, there were to be "infinite compensations" 
ahead for our Brother Knapp ; -but they were to be 
reached via dolorosa of pain. God had great songs for 
Brother Knapp to sing ; but the harp of his soul must 
be tuned and swept by the hand of agony. God wanted 
him to shed great Hght upon others ; but he must get 
his Hght by going, hke Moses, alone into the darkness 
with God. 

We see in this chapter in what furnace-heat Brother 
Knapp was molded and polished and equipped for serv- 
ice. We see where great souls get their faith and trust 
and power with God. His own diary shall tell the story : 

"September i, 1890. — God reigns supremely in my 
soul. Praise His name ! Lucy rested fairly well last 



LiFK OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. ioi 

night. Seems some better. Anna's verse for her yes- 
terday was, 'The Lord's hand is not shortened that 
He can not save.' I was reminded that man's extremity 
is God's opportunity ; how Daniel was permitted to be 
put into the den before dehverance came, and the He- 
brew children into the furnace before they were res- 
cued, etc. Such reasoning strengthened my faith and 
comforted me. She just said in great pain, 'O God, 
Thou art so good ! We can trust Thee when we can 
not see the way. May His will be done.' 

"Sunday, September 7, 1890. — Friday morning, Sep- 
tember 5th, my precious wife passed into Paradise. I 
trusted to the last that, as at other times, God would 
interpose, and that she would recover. I thought at 
times that I, with Anna, as we had such answers, were 
praying the prayer of faith for her recovery. I see now 
that I did not, because there was all the while an 'if 
in it and under it. I did not see that at the time, and 
God so ordered that I might be at my best to care 
for my darling. Toward the close she suffered much, 
and intensely at the end. I had never seen a person 
die before ; and the anguish it caused me to see her 
suffer so was intense. When she went, the shock was 
very severe. I suppressed my grief, and arranged for 
her funeral, as it was the last thing that I could do 
for her. God blessed me in so doing, and enabled me 
to get such a casket that the impression made upon 
the children would tend to be cheery instead of gloomy, 
as is the case where a black coffin is used. The service 
was held here. W^hen we took the body to Albion by 
way of Jackson, we were met at the train by Brother 
Floyd and quite a number of friends. The Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, of which Lucy was a 
member, had prepared flowers, and, in a tender, com- 



I02 A Hi:ro of Faith and Praykr. 

forting way, expressed their sympathy. Brother Floyd 
officiated at the grave in an affectionate way, and all 
that could be done was done to make the sad service 
as comforting as could be. The Brothers were Rev. 
A. A. Knoppen, Professor Avann, Rev. A. A. Humbrey, 
Mr. Shovas, class-leader, and Love Jay, all members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and prohibitionists. 
Brother Hunsberger, with the aid of Brother Floyd and 
Brother Tarsons, selected a delightful spot for the last 
resting-place of her remains. Mother Glenn alone went 
with me from Henrietta. John was critically sick, Anna 
not able to go, and father sick. Mother Knapp and 
Sister I. W. Arnold met us at the depot. We said good- 
bye to the body of my dearest earthly companion at the 
grave, and it was lowered to its last resting-place to 
await the resurrection. Two sheltering trees throw their 
friendly branches above her grave, an emblem of the 
tree planted by the rivers of waters, which bringeth forth 
its fruit in its season. The next morning after her death, 
as I awoke, the consciousness of my deep loss swept over 
me like the billows of an ocean. Such sorrow I had 
never known before; not for her, for I rejoiced in her 
translation from pain and all the ills of earth; but O, 
the aching soreness of the amputation of souls made 
one by God ! More than two days have now passed, 
and the ache increases. I find complete submission to 
God's will in all of this, and would not have Him spare 
me one ache, or lessen the intensity of any needed pain. 
I wish the furnace heated just as hot as He sees it 
needs to be, and only crave the form of the Fourth to 
sustain. This I claim, and He upholds. This pain 
seems to the soul what a felon is to the body; and, 
though Jesus has bound it up, still it aches. Mv wife 



Lii^t: or Rev. M. W. Knapp. 103 

is now in Paradise. Saints and angels are her com- 
panions. She is free. God has willed it. It is best. 
She was worthy of and ready for the reward. I need 
the discipline. Amen ; so let it be. O God, help me 
to meet her! 

''Precious darling, farewell ! Farewell, until the 
Master shall call me. I was unworthy of your deep 
and loyal love. It was a marvel of mercy that permit- 
ted you to tarry by my side those fourteen years. 
Sweet-voiced nightingale, thou hast been called to sing 
in brighter bowers and to more appreciative spirits. 
Thou wast m.y spiritual mother, and as such, under God, 
I owe my life to thee. Thou wert my teacher in evan- 
gelistic work. Much of my success there was due to 
thee. Counselor and companion, cheery, safe, loyal, 
and beautiful, how can I say good-bye? Thank God, 
the separation, at longest, can but be short. Thy mem- 
ory, fragrant still, is mine. May I live worthy of it ! 

*'0 God, our Father, in Jesus' name sanctify this 
deep loss to my good and to Thy glory ! I give my 
aching being anew to Thee. O lead me in a plain path 1" 

The following is an article which Brother Knapp 
wrote in the Revivalist about the departure of his wife : 

''GLORIFIED. 

"Mrs. Ivucy Glenn Knapp, the wife of the editor of 
the Revivalist, passed into Paradise, September 5th. 
She died from the effects of la grippe. She was the last 
of five children. She leaves a husband, parents, two 
children — Anna R., aged eleven, and John F., aged 
three — and a large circle of friends, to mourn her loss, 
rejoice in her gain, cherish her memory, and meet her 
in heaven. 



I04 A Hkro of Faith and Praye;r. 

''The writer met her when she was but sixteen at Al- 
bion College, where they both pursued their studies. 
They were strongly drawn towards each other, and she 
used this attachment to lead him to Christ. He was 
a wicked youth then, but the holy influence of her joy- 
ful Christian Hfe, under God, led to his conversion. She 
was his spiritual mother. As such alone his loss would 
have been keenly felt. 

"Since her sixteenth year they were united in heart, 
and when she was twenty-one they were married, and 
have since labored together in the pastorate, evangel- 
istic field, and book work. She had a number of times 
gone down near to the gates of death, but God had al- 
ways raised her up and brought her back again. 

"Sometimes it seemed as if we were able to ofifer 
the 'prayer of faith' for her recovery, but underneath all 
our prayers we see there was an 'if it be for her good 
and Thy glory spare her.' God saw that it was not, and 
so He took her home. She loved His work on earth, 
but was ready and glad to go home at His call. 

"I had never known before what bereavement of 
nearest ones meant, and her departure was a severe 
shock. Christ upheld. 

"She was worthy of and ready for the reward, and 
I needed the discipline. It is well. The morning she 
went, God so sustained me that I was enabled myself 
to attend to the preparation for the last sad rites. A 
sweet peace filled my heart as I selected her casket. 
I wished one that would leave a cheerful impression 
on the minds of children and friends, instead of dole- 
ful memories, such as black is wont to leave. It was 
diflicult to find what seemed fitting, only at an expense 
which was greater than either she or I on general prin- 
ciples would sanction, but finally what seemed to be 



Lii^S 01^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



105 



the right one was found, and in it was placed the fair 
form of her whom so tenderly we loved. 

"The next morning the sense of my loss swept over 
me like the cold, cruel waves of the ocean. There was 
and had been no rebellion in all, but the agony of such 
an ordeal I had never imagined. 

**It seemed as if God's will, like a great iron wheel, 
rolled back and forth across my being, causing inex- 
pressible pain ; but at the same time there was an ex- 
quisite pleasure in the God-given consciousness that His 
purposes with each of us were being wrought. Dear 
friends do all they can to soothe the sorrow, and Jesus 
wonderfully comforts ; but I feel that God would have 
me sense all the anguish of the loss to fit me better 
for my life work here or over there. My spiritual 
mother is gone ; the angel of my home has taken her 
flight. My ministerial co-laborer has been promoted 
to higher ministries. My office companion henceforth 
is engaging in brighter companionships. God wills it, 
and it is well. 

''I rejoice that I was permitted to share the first 
place in the heart and by the side of such a being for 
so many years. 

*'I could not be so cruel as to wish her from the 
delights of Paradise, its companions, music, ministries, 
and the presence of the King, to the pain, trial, and 
surroundings of earth. 

"For the past two years her main work has been 
answering the correspondence connected with our book 
work. In this she delighted, and many have mentioned 
the good she has thus done. 

"Her heart would thrill with joy and lips with praise 
as tidings would come of souls saved, sanctified, and 
helped through our books and paper, and she cherished 



io6 A Hkro of Faith and Prayi:r. 

glad hopes of meeting correspondents above. During 
the last two weeks of her life she gave utterance to 
many triumphant expressions. 

''No. 34, in Songs of Joy and Gladness, 'God's An- 
vil,' is my experience now. I am in God's afflictive 
furnace, but the form of the Fourth sustains. 

* Yet still I whisper "as God will " 
And in His hottest fire hold still.' 

"Although the ordeal of separation is a thousand 
times more agonizing than I had ever imagined, yet 
God's comforting grace is all-sufificient to sustain. 

* He doeth all things well, 

We say it now with tears, 
But we shall sing it with those we love 
Through the bright eternal years.' 

" 'She rests from her labors, but her works do fol- 
low her.' 

NOTES FROM GOD'S REVIVALIST: 

"Mrs. Knapp's Work to go on. — God sent 
us a competent assistant in the person of Sister 
Minnie C. Ferle, of Lansing, who learned the 
ofBce work just in time to take it when Mrs. Knapp 
failed. She is a fully-saved worker, gifted with the pen, 
and is doing the work in a creditable way. She remains 
for the present. In this way God has again demon- 
strated that this work is His own, and at this critical 
time has thus cared for it in His own wise way. 

"Our Littlk Anna Comi^ortkd. — She senses 
deeply the loss of her mother, but the Holy Spirit has 
comforted her in a wonderful way. She wrote: 
'When grandpa told me, "She 's gone," it seemed 
as if some one struck me and just took my heart away. 
But when I prayed the Lord said to me, "Your mother 



Life: of Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 107 

is in this room." ' She has felt her mother's presence 
near ever since. She entered into the experience of 
sanctification two years ago, and thus is blessedly kept. 

*' 'Splendid Either Way.' — In the last letter I re- 
ceived from Mrs. Knapp a few weeks before her release, 
she wrote: 'Dear Martin. Thanks for your extracts. 
If I "ask and receive that my joy be full," may be that 
will be heaven. 'To live is Christ, to die is gain.' Either 
way looks splendid to me, and I can only say, "Thy will 
be done." ' 

"If Ye Loved Me, Ye Woued Rejoice. — 'If I go, 
I wish to have no funeral sermon,' said Mrs. Knapp, 
'but wish they would have a salvation praise service 
because a saint has gone home to heaven.' She was 
always averse to dressing in mourning over the death 
of those whom God takes home. In respect to that 
sentiment we substitute white lines instead of black 
ones on this page of the Revivalist. 

"Broken Purposes. — Her parents had planned for 
their children. Lucy was the last of the five, Charlie 
preceding her only a short time. The children are all 
in Paradise, and the father and mother deeply feel their 
loss, but say with submissive hearts, 'The will of the 
Lord be done.* It is a greater honor to have given 
the world such a daughter than to have conquered king- 
doms. 

"A Request. — Will friends who have been converted 
or sanctified through Mrs. Knapp's influence or the in- 
fluence of our paper and books, or who know of those 
who have been, please report to us the facts. We have 
a large number of such reports, and beheve they all can 
be used in a way that will help the work she loved and 
thus glorify God. 

"Not Shut in. — Written by a lady on a bed of ex- 



io8 A Hi^RO o^ Faith and Prayer. 

treme suffering, which lasted many years, and sent to 
Mrs. Knapp towards the close of her illness by Sister 
Minnie C. Ferle. Mrs. Knapp made mention of it in 
the last letter she ever wrote, saying: 'Thank Minnie 
for her poem. It fits me exactly, only I do n't know 
whether I am waiting for heaven, or for health and 
strength. God blesses me and keeps me in perfect 
peace.' 

***Shutin!' did you say, my sisters ? 

O no ! only led away 
Out of the dust and turmoil. 

The burden and heat of the day, 
Into the cool, green pastures, 

By the waters calm and still. 
Where I may lie down in quiet, 

And yield to my Father's will. 

Earth's ministering ones come around me, 

With faces kind and sweet. 
And we sit and learn together 

At the loving Savior' s feet ; 
And we talk of life's holy duties, 

Of the crosses that lie in the way, 
And they must go out and bear them 

While I lie still and pray. 

I am not shut in, my sisters, 

For the four walls fade away. 
And my soul goes out in gladness, 

To bask in the glorious day. 
This wasting, suffering body. 

With its weight of weary pain. 
Can never dim my vision. 

My spirit can not restrain. 

I wait the rapturous ending. 

Or, rather, the entering in 
Through the gates that stand wide open, 

But admit no pain or sin. 



Lir'i: OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 109 

I am only waiting, sisters, 

Till the Father calls, * Come home ! ' 
Waiting, with lamp all burning. 

Till the blessed Bridegroom comes." 

CONTINUATION OF DIARY: 

"Muskegon, September 19, 1890. — Have been to 
Montague ; returned yesterday. Friends there very kind 
and tearful. There are so many places there where 
Lucy and I have enjoyed blessed seasons together, that 
such emotions were awakened as to make it painful for 
me to be there. I came back yesterday. Many think 
that I soon will be with my loved one. It would be 
grand if God so should will ; but this morning I feel 
that care for our children and God's work will hold 
me yet for some time. Grace helps me wonderfully. I 
wish to live for Jesus only, all I do to be in unison 
with His plans. The following thoughts of late have 
impressed me deeply : 

"A duty of and privilege of expressing my apprecia- 
tion of friends while they are with me. 

''The absence of an earthly companion, with whom I 
can commune, and to whom. I can tell the many things 
that would be of such interest to us both. 

''The fact that I am in God's disciplinary school, and 
that He is refining me for service for this or the other 
world — I do n't know which. He knows, and that is 
enough. 

"I expect to take the train for Albion in a few mo- 
ments. 

"Albion, September 21, 1890. — This is Lucy's third 
Sabbath in Paradise. What greetings she has enjoyed! 
My sense of her loss continues to deepen. God wills 
it so. She was the means, under God, of my conversion ; 



no A Hero oiP Faith axd Prayer. 

my spiritual adviser ; my companion ; the guide of my 
home; my business partner and adviser; the mother 
of my children; my nurse — her touch was restful, al- 
most healing; my sharer in the ministry; my precious 
zvife. 

''Glory to God for allowing me her society so many 
years ! This morning it seemed as if God stood by 
me with poHshing tools, and said, in substance : 'We 
never chisel and polish people without their consent, 
and will leave you unfinished, or complete our work 
on you, as you consent. What shall we do?' My an- 
swer is : 'Father, use your own judgment in the mat- 
ter. You have my consent to do the work as completely 
as Thou seest it has need to be done.' This afternoon 
it seemed to me as if I was being borne on a stream 
toward some falls. They were not very steep, and 
beyond them was the sea of Paradise. I had not 
strength to resist the current, and shall go over unless 
Divine Power interpose. W^hether it does or not, re- 
mains to be seen. God's will be done. I have no sug- 
gestions to offer in the matter. 

"Albion, October 19, 1890. — Head is weak ; heart 
strong. Tempted, but delivered. Sorrowful, yet rejoic- 
ing. Mother Glenn came with the children yesterday. 
She is very good to me. How splendid it is to have 
Anna and John home again! Precious, motherless lit- 
tle ones ! God help me to train them aright ! Had an- 
other attack of the grippe Friday. Am better. Again 
I repeat, God's will be done, with no suggestions 
from me. 

* I know little, Jesus all ; 
In his arms I gladly fall. 
He will guide me every day 
In the right and perfect way.' 



LiFi^ oi^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. Ill 

"Albion, November 19, 1890. — Have been very 
poorly since last v^riting; thought I might go. Am 
suddenly much better. God knows the reason. His 
is the praise. It seems good to be so much better. I 
wish to be fully kept for Jesus. Anna is such a comfort. 

''Sunday, November 23, 1890. — Jesus saves, sancti- 
fies, leads, and comforts. Glory to His name ! I have 
passed through a siege of the most fearful temptations 
of my life. Satan at times was almost triumphant, and, 
though he wounded me, yet, in Jesus' name and by His 
power, He has been vanquished. Christ has in each 
instance made a way of escape. Anna is such a com- 
fort and companion to me. I miss John more and more, 
and think that before very long I will be with him, or 
he with me. It seems as if I love the children ten times 
more than I did." 

One can not help noticing, in the above and many 
other passages, how real the personality of Satan was 
to Brother Knapp, and how he recognized him in his 
temptations. It reminds us of Martin Luther. A fa- 
mous editor and orator once visited Finney, and, in 
the course of conversation, said, "But I do n't believe 
in the existence of a personal devil." Finney stepped 
back and looked him over with his piercing eye, and 
exclaimed: "What! Don't believe in a personal devil? 
You just resist him awhile, and then see if you do n't." 

"Sunday, December 15, 1890. — I attended church 
this morning, the second time in nearly three months. 
Brother Floyd preached. I was deeply impressed. He 
goes to India in January as a missionary. Our relation 
to him and his noble wife has been such that it seems 
sad to separate. How much it means to reckon our- 
selves dead to our friends, so that we are glad to have 



112 -^ Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

them just where God wants them, whether here or in 
India, on earth or in heaven! God is raising me up for 
a purpose. Satan w^ill try hard to defeat it, but God 
will give victory. I miss Lucy more than ever when 
I go to church. When shall we meet again, meet never 
to sever? Aching heart, be patient, and soon life's bat- 
tle will all be over. My future is not unfolded. I want 
God to map it all. He comforts me in many ways, for 
which I praise Him. Mother and Anna and Minnie 
have done all they could for me. May God reward 
them, as I can not !" 

Here we find the record of the death of his father, 
who, notwithstanding feeble health, nearly doubled the 
age of his useful son. God's ways are high above ours. 

''Albion, June 2, 1891. — Father passed peacefiflly into 
eternity last Sunday, May 24th. He would have been 
eighty-one the 22d of next October. He was very pa- 
tient in his last days, and wanted to go. The day be- 
fore he went he said to mother, 'I hear singing, but 
you do n't.' 

"O how time flies ! I am gradually recovering. May 
God be glorified ! 

"Grand Rapids, June 6-18, 1891. — Meeting moving 
grandly. Many saved, I have seasons of joy and of 
depression. Joy in Jesus ; awful pain over the sins 
of the past. O the bitterness of sin ! I can not under- 
stand my experience. Two strange dreams : exposure 
to great pain and peril. It throws a shadow over me. 
They made me feel strangely. All is yielded to Jesus. 
He pardons, cleanses, keeps, and will lead. Glory to 
His name !" 

The attentive reader will notice the very frequent 
mention made of dreams in this biography. It is very 



Lii^K or* Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



1^3 



seldom that an educated person in our day pays so 
much attention to dreams. 

"Reed City Camp, August ii, 1891. — Seventeen pro- 
fessed sanctification first night. August 12th, morning, 
talked on 'Prayer.' Over twenty forward; most claimed 
victory. August 13th, talk on 'Egypt.' Forty at the 
altar; many sanctified. A wave of glory. Praise God! 
August 14th, over forty at the altar this morning. 
August 15th, over thirty at the altar. Two other talks : 
'Kadesh-Barnea,' 'Wilderness ;' and God leads. Tempted 
again, yet victorious. O for the melting power of the 
Holy Ghost ! August i6th, Sunday, the melting came. 
Talked on 'Consecration.' One hundred and eighteen 
were at the altar. Most of them were victorious. To 
God be the glory ! 

"After Reed City, went with Brother Parsons to 
White Hall for a week's rest. God was in it. He took 
the service at White Hall Sunday and Monday. Over 
fifty were at the altar for pardon or purity. 

"Sunday, September 6, 1891. — One year ago to-day 
was Lucy's funeral. What a year ! What temptations ! 
What . . . ! Thank God, the past is all under the 
blood ! I know not what awaits me ; but God will lead 
and reveal His will as fast as I need to know it. 

"Albion, October 2, 1891. — It seems as if I live, as 
never before, upon the borders of Paradise. A thin veil 
separates. It may lift at any moment, and then what 
strange, grand, new scenes and greetings! I await God's 
time. His will — whether it be work, wait, or reward — 
His will be done. Work looks inviting, waiting with 
Him will be well. Reward will be utterly undeserved, 
yet glorious. I havK hkaven in my he:art. 

"My sins He will remember against me no more for- 
8 



114 "^ Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

ever. Am fasting and praying for light and victory, and 
it comes. I praise God! 

"The revival here moves slowly, but deeply. Brother 
Glascock, the evangelist, is a fearless man and full of 
the Holy Ghost. An effort has been made by a w^eak- 
spine preacher to gag him, but it can't be done, praise 
God ! Thank God ! a genuine revival turns the weak- 
SPINE EAMIEY into soldiers that v^^ill fight and not run. 

''Saturday evening, December 5, 1891. — God v^ants 
our love. He claims the first place in our hearts. If 
He is given that, He will pardon mistakes. To take 
it from Him and give it to another is wicked. It wrongs 
Him infinitely. 

"He is true. Others may prove faithless. He is 
always the same. Others may change. An unexpected 
trial wrings my heart. It saws through the tender est fibers 
of my being. It seems to be without excuse, brought on 
by the waywardness and thoughtlessness of another. 
It may prove a ... But God knows. He helps 
and comforts. So far as I am concerned, His will shall 
be done. He will get good out of it for me and glory 
to Himself. From a human standpoint it seems 
CRUEE and excuseeess, but GOD WILL OVERRULE 
IT FOR GOOD in His own way. It will be the herald 
of brighter days. Always darkest before light. I kiss 
the hand that permits the wrong to be done me, and in 
my heart can say, 'Father, forgive.' Satan has a hand 
in it ; but grace will again prevail, and God's will be 
known and done. 

"Monday, December 7, 1891. — Praise God! Victory 
within, and great light on life plans. A matter of great 
moment settled after hours of struggle, fasting, and 
prayer. God is good. He suppHes my need. Was 



Li^Z o^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. h^ 

terribly burdened for M . Burden gone, and vic- 
tory comes. God wills it, and it is well. I praise Him 
for it." 

Here another furnace, and some other form of grief, 
too private to be named is mentioned, through which 
this brother was called to pass ; and his first call to Cin- 
cinnati, where his greatest life-work lay. 

''December 8, 1891. — God is re:fining me in his 
EURNACK. The Fire is hot, but needed, and Jesus 
TEMPERS IT. How good in Him to purge the dross all 
away ! He has given me the discipline that comes from 
losing a companion; . . . from losing property 
without losing it ; from losing reputation without losing 
it ; from betrayal by best earthly friends, without such 
betrayal. Brother Glascock came to-day, and says he 
feels that God wants us to go to Cincinnati with our 
holiness and book work. 

«* FURNACE LESSONS. 

"First. Hold still in the furnace. Uneasiness hinders 
the process, and mars the quality of the work. 

"Second. Do n't question the Refiner too much. He 
understands His work. 

"Third. He will notify when it is finished. 

"Fourth. Sometimes it comes like a huge smooth- 
ing-iron, smoothing all the kinks and ruffles out of our 
souls. 

"Fifth. The purgation, though painful, is worth in- 
finitely more than it costs. 

"Sixth. The will must overcome the shrinking back 
from the fire. 

"December 9, 1891. — Great victory to-day, in Jesus' 
name. Expect to go to Port Huron and have glorious 



Ii6 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

victory there. The furnace experience seems really 
through. I take J\IS. 'Full Salvation' by faith, and 
praise God for it. It is coming. Glory to God ! 

"December lo, 1891. — Praise God! This is to be a 
memorable morning. God gives me such liberty in 
prayer as I never had before. He hears and answers. 
He is unfolding His plans to me and doing His will in 
me. All glory to His name ! 

"Sunday morning, December 12, 1891. — Praise God 
for salvation and sleep ! After nearly two weeks of 
soul-burden and agony from a deep wound rest came. 
I slept as sweetly as a child. Aly 'Isaac' is on the altar. 
God will send deliverance. I stand still and await the 
salvation of God. It is coming in His way, in His time. 
God's will, not mine, be done. 

"December 14th. — Agony inexpressible. Amen. 

"December 15th. — Sweet rest in Jesus. Amen. 

'December i6th. — Victory. Amen. 

"December 17th. — Amen. 

"December 20th. — Awful temptation. Amen. 

"December 2ist. — Sweet rest. Amen. 

"January 6th. — Brother Hill sick, and can not go 
with me to Port Huron. x\men. Seventy-five profess 
pardon ; thirty sanctification. Amen. 

"January 30th. — C. A. C. A. Amen. 

"April I, 1891. — Saved and kept. 

"December 18, 1891. — I awoke a little before twelve 
in inexpressible agony. The pains of hell got hold of 
me. It seemed unendurable,, and increased. I never 
had such an experience. It seemed as if I was lost, and 
there was no hope. I finally arose and went into my 
study ; there I wrestled with God until victory came. 
I devoted myself anew to Him. The following convic- 
tions came to me : 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



117 



"First. I am to warn the Church of its dangers. 

"Second. I must trust my family and business chiefly 
with others. 

"Third. I am to be much from home. 

"Fourth. God is to give victory: 
"A. Over iniquity; 
"B. Over the opposition. 

"I am in His hands for any word or work. Glory 
comes to my soul. Hallelujah ! God can purge away 
iniquity, and, though the earth rise up, He can put it 
down. O Father, keep me filled with the Holy Ghost 
and in Thine own order ! Praise God, O my soul ! He 
has restored me to health again. The: work was dond 
A ^e:w days ago." 

This looks like another case of Divine healing. He 
had been healed of the effects of a sunstroke when he 
was sanctified. Such a work was wrought on him sev- 
eral times. 



CHAPTER IX. 
TRIAL AND DELIVERANCE. 

" Look on to this 
Through ail perplexities of grief and strife, — 
To this thy true maturity of life, 

Thy coming bliss : 
That such high gifts thy future dower may be, 
And for such service high thy God prepareth thee. 

What though to-day 
Thou canst not trace at all the hidden reason 
For His strange dealings through the trial-season, — 

Trust and obey ; 
And, like the child whose story follows here. 
In after life and light all shall be plain and clear." 

— F. R. Havergal. 

*' Light after darkness. 

Gain after loss ; 
Strength after suffering. 

Crown after cross. 
Sweet after bitter. 

Song after sigh ; 
Home after wandering, 

Praise after cry. 

Near after distant. 

Gleam after gloom ; 
Love after loneliness. 

Life after tomb. 
After long agony. 

Rapture of bliss ; 
Right was the pathway. 

Leading to this!" — F. R. Havergal. 



Li^E OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



119 



''Albion, December 20, 1891. — A day of Job experi- 
ence, but blessed victory this evening. I still miss Lucy. 
The room she had in my heart temple is still unoccupied. 
Another room, however, God built and filled. Its occu- 
pant brought cheer and gladness, and promised to re- 
main for life. 

"I am one v^ith Christ to-night. During the tor- 
nadoes of temptation and trial that of late have swept 
over me, I let go for a little, and was well nigh ingulfed ; 
but Jesus has rescued. Praise His name ! 

''December 22, 1891. — A night of mingled rest and 
heart-agony over the deep, deep wound. O how it 
aches ! Jesus soothes it, and has a cure when He is 
permitted to use it. I feel nothing but forgiveness, 
compassion, pity, and inexpressible love for the one 
who struck the cruel blow. It was not meant, I feel 
sure, and soon, I trust, the Hand that caused it may 
be the one to heal it. Jesus is inexpressibly precious. 
He dwells in my heart ; He has His way there. I de- 
light in His discipline. His plans. His will. He is made 
unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and re- 
demption. His will concerning me shall be done, by 
His grace. I do trust Him now, trust Him fully, and 
trust Him for all. He undertakes my cure. He will 
win it in His own way. I await the revelations of His 
will. He will prepare me for them. O how I am bur- 
dened that may yet come into the Hght ! Pride, 

willfulness, distrust, and fear, all seem to hold her back. 
O Father, in Jesus' name, hear, I pray, and cut the work 
short in righteousness ! I trust it all with Thee, and 
look for the victory. 

"December 29, 1891. — I am all the Lord's. His will 
is mine. I so elect, through Jesus' grace. I believe 
He accepts and sanctifies just now. He restoreth my 



120 A He:ro of Faith and Praykr. 

soul and leads in paths of righteousness for His name's 
sake. The Holy Ghost is my Leader and Guide. He 
will guide me into all truth. Jesus is my Companion 
and a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Since 
I have been led out to take a more public stand for 
holiness, and help start a holiness meeting here, Satan 
has tempted me as never before in my life. He has 
sought to cripple me in every possible way. I cling 
to the cross. It is my only hope. Nothing alarms Satan 
like the sight of the blood and the sound of the testi- 
mony of the fully saved. I believe that Jesus pardons. 
I believe that His blood cleanses me just now. I be- 
lieve that He is leading me. I believe that He gives me 
power over all the powers of the enemy. I believe that 
He is helping me to live triumphant, and will guide me 
by His counsels, and afterwards receive me into glory. 
Have been looking for a new baptism of the Holy Ghost, 
and believe that it is coming. O that it now from heaven 
might fall ! I take it by faith, and God will bestow it. 
It is mine, praise His name forever ! 

"Port Huron, January i, 1892. — Glory to God! I 
am resting in Him. Praise and the use of the weapons 
of our warfare go together. Satan has tempted out- 
rageously ; but God gives peace and victory over him. 
Brother Hill still unable to be here. I am learning to 
trust more in God. He has taken all from me that He 
may give me all in Himself. 

''Now I want only those gifts which He freely be- 
stows. For them I prove Him. Others would prove 
a snare instead of a blessing. O blessed Bridegroom, 
keep the trust which I have committed to Thee !" 

"January 7, 1892. — This is the fifteenth anniversary 
of my marriage. What scenes I have been led through ! 
In a new sense Jesus is my Bridegroom. Am married 



Life: of Rev. M. W. Kxapp. 121 

to Him. His companionship, protective and provisive, 
for me is exceedingly precious and abundant. I yield 
all to His dear will. Hull expected Brother Hill to go 
with me to-day; but he is sick. God will overrule all 
to His own glory. He is making out my program. I 
leave all in His hands, and 

' Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, 
Or demons, or men, or whatever it be, 
No harm can come to the ship where Hes 
The Maker of ocean and earth and skies. 
They all shall sweetly obey His will ; 

^Peace be still, peace be still.' 

"I am the ship, and Jesus is within. He makes tne 
wrath of men to praise Him. He works good out of the 
wrongs that reach me from others. He makes the mis- 
takes of others to lead me nearer to Him. He guides 
me by His counsels, and will receive me into glory. 
Praise His name forever ! 

"Sunday, January 10, 1892. — Meeting commenced 
here. Five have prdfessed conversion, and many sought 
purity. To God be the praise ! Severely tempted, but 
Jesus delivers. I believe for the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. He comes. He fills me now. I look for victory 
to-night. 

'Tort Huron, Monday, January 11, 1892. — No 
special break last night ; but it is coming, praise God. 
After another siege of fearful temptation, Jesus reveals 
Himself to me anew to-night. I got willing to walk 
by faith, and then He came in. I am married to Him. 
He loves me, and provides for all my needs. I am will- 
ing to suffer with Him in His humiliations here, as His 
love makes suffering sweet ; and then I shall reign with 
Him forever. Glory to God ! I was feeling so hungry 
for sympathy, companionship, and love that my heart 



122 A Hero oe Faith and Prayi:r. 

ached. Then He came and gave me just what I was 
looking for from human service. O blessed love of my 
soul, abide with me forever! I can not spare Thee for 
one moment. I fain would lean my aching, weary head 
upon Thy breast, and feel the restfulness which Thou 
alone canst give. Thou wilt never leave me nor for- 
sake me. Death will but draw me closer to Thee, and 
no alienation ever can spring from Thee. O may my 
love to Thee be constant, my obedience cheerful, and 
may I never let any one come between Thee and me! 

* How could it be, my Lord Divine, 
That Thou couldst cleanse a heart like mine ? 
Wash all its sin and guilt away, 
And then forever with it stay ! ' 

"Amen. 

In the next entry in the diary there is evidence that 
some peculiar trial that cruelly lacerated his tender soul 
came, partially at least, to an end. He once, in a 
sacredly private conversation, told me about it. It shall 
be namless here. One wonders that so. true a heart 
could have been thus willingly and purposely wrung 
with anguish. 

"Albion, January 30, 1892. — A sweet, blessed day. 
God is so good to me. What I have so long taken by 
faith is mine. O how thankful I am ! The trial so sore 
is ending in triumph. I am welcomed again to the place 
God gave me in the heart-temple. Jesus shall share it 
with me. It seems the most like home here to-day of 
any day since Lucy went to heaven. It is all God's work. 
He hears prayer, and takes out of the furnace when the 
purifying is completed. All glory to His name ! 

* Out of the presses of pain 

Cometh the soul's best wine, 
And the eyes that have shed no rain 
Can shed but little shine.' 



hn?% OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 123 

"Albion, February 16, 1892. — Victory and praise are 
in my soul. God is leading, Satan is retreating. The 
113th Psalm comes to me with strength and sweetness 
this morning. God had been refining me for a purpose. 
I praise Him for all ! The trials of the past contributed 
to the triumphs of the present. To God be all the glory ! 
It looks as if the Lord is leading to Cincinnati. Amen, 
if God so lead^. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus. He is 
leading in a plain path. It seems as if Satan has left 
me for a season. 

"Albion, March 27, 1892. — Praise God, another mile- 
stone passed. This is my thirty-ninth birthday. 
Through God's grace I am richer than ever. He has 
given me : First, a title to heaven ; second, a pure heart ; 
third, perfect love ; fourth, a stronger faith ; fifth, a loved 
one in glory ; sixth, kind friends on earth ; seventh, a 
true mother ; eighth, precious children ; ninth, a chance 
to work for Him ; tenth, A. C. A. ; eleventh, Jesus. He 
has answered many prayers. Is blessing C. A., and 
making what He designs. All will be well. 

"Albion, June 2, 1892. — A splendid League meeting 
last night. Sister Floyd led it. One young preacher 
claimed holiness. To God be the glory! He has been 
leading in a wonderful way. Sister Lucy is to be office 
manager of the Revivalist. We expect to go to Cin- 
cinnati September ist. I have finished 'Impressions,' 
and the printer has begun his work. Dreamed last night 

of Brother A suffering severely; awoke with this 

question in my mind : *Am I willing to sufifer if it be 
God's will?' I was thoroughly awakened, but said, 
'Yes,' and went to sleep. There was an 'impression' that 
some evil might be impending, but God gave me the 
promise, 'There shall no evil befall thee.' I trust all with 
Him. Where He may lead I '11 follow, my trust in Him 



124 



A Hero of Faith and Praykr. 



repose. Satan has often tried to torment me by his 
impressions from below. God defeats him. Jesus fully 
saves and sanctifies. 

''March 29, 1892. — A melting down this morning. I 
am dead, nevertheless I live. Praise God, I will gladly 
do, by His grace, all that Jesus says. To Him be glory 
forever ! O the constant fight with the devil ! Victory 
through Jesus. 

"Scottsville, June 6-7, 1892. — A good opening here. 
A number were forward Sunday, and some blessed. 
Praise God ! Have passed through another fearful siege 
of temptation. O the agony thus suffered! I was 
wounded a few weeks ago by Satan, and he stands often 
at the sore. This morning I have gone over all the old 
ground and entered into a new covenant with God. 
He delivers : (a) from past guilt ; (b) from inbred sin ; 
(c) from the penalty of sin ; (d) gives me the Holy Ghost 
to abide with me and to lead me into all truth. I am 
united anew to Him." 

How Satan hated this blessed man of God, and tried 
to overcome him by all the wiles of hell ! It is a bless- 
ing to us that God prompted him to keep a diary these 
four years or more, the only period of his life in which 
he did. It gives us an insight into the inner conflicts, 
the sharp temptations, the bitter trials and sorrows of 
a great soul, who was honestly trying to walk with God 
in holiness of heart. If we are tempted and tried, and 
even "wounded" by Satan, we may be helped by the 
reflection that no temptation hath come to us except 
such as is common to man ; and in this picture of a life 
we learn how to lay hold of God for complete victory. 
He seems to look down upon us from the heavenly 
heights and say, with the Master, ''Be of good cheer; I 
have overcome the world." 



LiF^ oi^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 125 

*'Reed City Camp, August 17, 1892. — The meeting 
opened gloriously. 

"i. Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye be- 
lieved ? 

"2. River of death. Many blessed both mornings. 

"3. Wilt thou be made whole? 

"4. Consecration, I beseech you. 

''5. Seventh of St. John." 

We now return again to notice Brother Knapp's 
work in authorship. He thus speaks of the next book : 
^'Having been promoted from the pastorate to the 
evangelistic afield, I soon felt that many places and 
Churches which should be spiritual furnaces were Arctic 
icebergs, chilling the heart and freezing souls on every 
side. How could this be remedied? Nothing but fire 
from the skies could do it. How to build the fires in 
many places was a problem. As I believe. Divinely 
led, I began to gather 'kindlings' wherever they could 
be found, which soon took the form of 'Revival Kind- 
lings,' which has found its way to many a preacher's 
library, and has been the inspiration of many a revival 
fire. Of this book over six thousand copies have been 
printed." 

The dedication of this book is unique, and quite 
characteristic of Brother Knapp. It is as follows : 

"Unto the Triune God, Whose Love is 'a Genial 
Fire ;' Whose Glory is 'a Devouring Fire ;' Who is to 
His People 'a Refiner's Fire ;' Who is to the Persistently 
Impenitent 'a Consuming Fire ;' and Who is Seeking to 
Kindle on Earth 'Revival Fire;' and Unto His Church, 
which He has Promised to 'Baptize with Fire from 
Above,' this volume is Humbly Dedicated by its 
Author." It was copyrighted in 1890. 

Then he gave to the world another book during 



126 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

these same years of sorrow and suffering, of which he 
thus writes : 

"As time passed away, trials came. Furnace experi- 
ences multipHed. I found that Satan, in a way I had 
never known before, was able to transform himself into 
an angel of light, pretending to be the Holy Ghost 
Himself, and thus deceiving, if it were possible, God's 
elect. I found people on every side swayed by influ- 
ences, supposing them to be Divine, which were from 
him. 

'Teople thus deceived, Hke wrecked cars on a rail- 
road-track, abound on every side. The Spirit led me 
to investigate the cause of such disaster. I read the 
Bible and the works of learned men, and gathered in- 
cidents from people thus misled, and learned of their 
delivery from such Satanic bondage, and the result was 
my book called 'Impressions,' treating of the source 
from which they come — some from above, others from 
below — and showing how to test them, that one may not 
be misled. 

"Letters from far and near poured in on me, telling 
of the helpfulness of this book. Pastors prize it to cir- 
culate among the young, and people of every rank de- 
clare its helpfulness." 

Of this book over eight thousand copies have been 
printed. The author designed it to be the prevention 
and cure of fanaticism, one of the rankest evils in the 
Holiness IMovement. If the devil can not keep people 
from getting sanctified, he then plays the part of the 
Holy Ghost, and tries to induce sanctified people to run 
off into all the follies of fanaticism and make perfect 
fools of themselves, so that he can kill their influence. 

Dr. Keen said: "Having read 'Impressions,' I re- 
gard it a most instructive, suggestive, and useful book 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



127 



on a very important subject. It is an admirable safe- 
guard on the subject of spiritual guidance." 

Personally, I consider this one of our brother's most 
valuable books ; and it is almost alone in its field. If 
more widely read, it would head off a deal of nonsense 
and folly that is to-day cursing the Holiness Movement. 

Thus it appears that, during those years of weak- 
ness and pain and deepest sorrow, our "Hero of Faith 
and Prayer" conquered poverty, rose above difficulties, 
was oblivious to sickness and pain, passed through the 
deepest sorrows, and endured the fiercest trials, and 
yet won many hundreds of souls in his revival work, 
launched a religious paper, and gave to the world three 
books, ''Revival Tornadoes," "Revival Kindlings,^' and 
"Impressions," that have had already a combined cir- 
culation of about thirty thousand. His wife has some 
occasion to say that, during those few years when his 
health was so poor that his life was often despaired of, 
and he was being hounded by Satan and harassed by 
sorrow and trial, he accomplished more than many min- 
isters do in a lifetime. O, how this heaven-inspired 
energy of this great soul shames us who weakly imagine 
that we must have such favorable conditions and help- 
ful surroundings to accomplish our little tasks ! How 
the empowering Holy Spirit appears in it all ! It was 
evidently He who inspired this silent sufferer to ignore 
weakness and sorrow, sickness and pain, and bend to 
his work with the grim determination of a giant, and 
press on in the race for glory and for heaven. 

The next to the last entry in his diary was evidently 
written in Cincinnati, November 18, 1892, and recorded 
the following event, which meant so much to him in all 
his after life : 

"Married Minnie C. Ferle, September 14th, and went 



128 A Hero oe Faith and Pravkr. 

with her to Conference the next day. Came from there 
here, September 20th. God was in our uniting and com- 
ing to this place." 

"November 30, 1892. — I do beHeve and receive, and 
God is leading. ]\lore and more delighted with our 
marriage. Surely 'a good wife is of the Lord.' " 

Yes, he "believed and received." Evidently he 
sought his wife of the Lord, as every man ought to do ; 
and God led him, and led to him a great-souled, wise, 
and helpful wife, with a sanctified nature, who has been 
to him a most helpful companion and a wise counselor 
all these later years. Well did he say that such a wife 
was "of the Lord!" 




Mrs. M. W. Knapp. 



CHAPTER X. 

UFE'S WORK AND DEVELOPMENT IN CIN- 
CINNATI. 

** I would the great would grow like thee, 
Who grewest not alone in power 
And knowledge, but, by year and hour, 
In reverence and in charity." — Tennyson. 

** Great is the power of Goodness to charm and to command. The 

man inspired by it, is the true king of men, drawing all hearts after him. 

There are men in whose presence we feel as if we breathed a 

spiritual ozone, refreshing and invigorating, like inhaling mountain air or 

enjoying a bath of sunshine." 

" The very sight of a great and good man is often an inspiration to the 
young, who can not help admiring and loving the gentle, the brave, the 
truthful, the magnanimous." — Samuel Smiles. 

We find at our hands almost no personal incidents 
in the life of Brother Knapp in the material sent us 
concerning his first five years in Cincinnati. We only 
know, in a general way, that he was persistently push- 
ing his paper into new fields and working up and push- 
ing ahead his book-publishing. No doubt he engaged 
in revival work as favorable doors opened to him, run- 
ning out to places near Cincinnati, in Ohio, Kentucky, 
and Indiana. I have heard a little about it ; but not 
enough to write definitely. It does not matter. It 
would be only a repetition of scenes and experiences 
already described. We know what kind of a gospel he 
preached and just how God used the messages. That 
is sufficient for our purpose. 

It might be well to notice that the conditions for 
9 129 



130 A Hkro o^ Faith and Praykr. 

planting the holiness work in Cincinnati were anything 
but favorable when Brother Knapp went there. It was 
what is familiarly called a "burnt district." Holiness 
had been planted there years before by the great lead- 
ers of the modern ''National Holiness Association" 
movement. I think, if my memory is not at fault, that 
Inskip, Macdonald, and Lowrey had labored there. 
After them came Dr. Keen, of sainted memory. But 
after all this noble, initial work of seed-planting had 
been done, the devil got in his finest work. He induced 
some of the local people, by his Satanic impressions, 
to go off into fanaticism. It floats through my mind 
vaguely, from a conversation I once had with some- 
body in Cincinnati about it, that one of these fanatics 
claimed to be Christ incarnated again, and received wor- 
ship as such. Fanaticism is Satan's finest work; and 
in this case he rather outdid himself. Holiness, and 
even the very word, became an offense to thoughtful and 
sensible people. 

Of course there were humble souls here and there 
who remained true, who walked with God in the dark- 
ness, who mourned over the desolations of Zion, and 
who prayed for God to send deliverance. Among these 
was Sister Mary Storey, who welcomed Mr. and Mrs. 
Knapp to the city nearly ten years ago. She felt that 
God had sent Brother Knapp to rebuild the walls of the 
wasted holiness Zion in Cincinnati and the surrounding 
country. Her conjecture proved blessedly true. In no 
city in America is the work of holiness so thoroughly 
established, so well fortified and organized, and so broad 
and comprehensive in its plans, and so striking and 
puissant in its achievements, as it is now in Cincinnati. 
The journey of the little Methodist preacher to Cincin- 
nati was like the journey of the little Apostle Paul to 




Miss Mary Stork y. 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



131 



Rome ; it meant a great deal to the service and kingdom 
of Jesus Christ. 

This Sister Mary Storey stood by Brother Knapp 
and his wife through all the years ; and so wise and help- 
tul was she in her evangelistic work, and so discreet and 
efficient in her friendship and counsels, that Brother 
Knapp named her as one of the trustees of the work. 

Under such conditions our "Hero of Faith and 
Prayer" entered upon the work with the step of a con- 
queror, and, nothing daunted, sei: up his banner in the 
name of God Almighty. He could not be frozen out, 
or driven out, or scared out, or starved out. It made 
little difference to him who smiled or who frowned. He 
was there to please King Jesus, to capture a strategical 
point, from which he could send out light and blessing 
far and wide over the land. He knew whom he be- 
lieved. He was neither afraid, nor discouraged, nor dis- 
appointed. God was with him, and caused the work of 
his hands to prosper. 

In describing what happened in the first five years 
of his Cincinnati life, it is not vital nor essential to pre- 
serve the exact order of the events or the dates, even 
if it were now possible. 

He soon passed his fortieth birthday, and he said 
to his wife, "I want to so live that it shall turn out 
that my real life-work has just begun." 

Much as he had previously acomplished, and short 
as his after life was, he made it well-nigh true. He 
little knew just how God would use him, or into what 
paths of efifort he would lead, yet somehow his mighty 
faith reached out for large things, and God gave them 
to him. 

Of Brother Knapp's next book he gave the follow- 
ing account : 



132 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 



"A flood of correspondence from those seeking light 
on the subject of hohness led me to see the need of 
a book, condensed and to the point, showing what holi- 
ness is and what it is not, from a Bible standpoint, and 
how to receive and retain it. Hence, as God led and 
helped, we wrote 'The Double Cure,' which, though the 
smallest of our books, has been instrumental in leading 
many into the possession of the the soul-health which 
it magnifies." 

Of this book over twenty-four thousand copies have 
been printed. No doubt it has helped a multitude of 
sick and hungry souls to the Savior for the first cure, 
and to the Holy Ghost for the second. 

*' Be of sin the Double Cure, 

Save from wrath and make me pure." — Toplady. 

BEULAH HEIGHTS. 

While Brother Knapp's mind was at work on this 
book, his head, following the lead of his heart, was plan- 
ning some permanent institution that should be a peren- 
nial blessing to a neglected section of country. It re- 
sulted in what I find described by himself, Brother Rees, 
and Bessie, as follows : 

''Beulah Heights, Ky. 

Rev. M. W. Knapp. 

"Would you like to see them? Then come to Cin- 
cinnati, stay over night with me, and, taking the morn- 
ing train on the Cincinnati Southern, fly through the 
beautiful 'Blue-grass' region of Kentucky, over High 
Bridge and numberless chasms, and through dark tun- 
nels, under hills and mountains, until you reach Flat 
Rock, a mountain hamlet of perhaps a half-dozen 



LiFK o^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



133 



houses, one hundred and eighty-five miles south of the 
Queen City. Now you are within three miles of our 
camp-ground. Plunge through a primitive forest by a 
well-worn wagon-road ; now at the bottom of a deep 
valley, where a silver stream sings doxologies day and 
night ; now slowly winding your way up the mountain 
side until you reach a beautiful mountain plateau, four 
miles long, and from one-quarter of a mile to one mile 
wide. Keep in the road, which traverses this highland 
for about two miles, until you come to a modest, new 
schoolhouse. Stop there, and make inquiries, and you 
will find the 'following : 

"A noble Christian woman who has just resigned a 
position of seventy-five dollars per month in the Cin- 
cinnati schools to take charge of the Beulah Heights 
holiness school, donating her time for one year to help 
establish it. You will also find there a woman whom I 
know by personal experience to be one of the best 
mothers who ever lived in Michigan or moved out of it. 
She is there for the present as the teacher's aid and 
companion. Ask them about the camp-meeting just 
closed, and they will tell you that it was conducted by 
the Cincinnati Holiness League, was largely attended, 
led by the Holy Ghost, characterized by old-time liberty, 
power, conversions, and entire sanctification ; that two 
hundred persons kneeled at the altar for a definite work, 
and that over one hundred and twenty professed by 
word of mouth pardon or perfect love ; that sky-blue 
conversions and sanctifications were the order, and that 
it looks as if holiness is planted through all that region 
to stay. They will also tell you that a permanent site 
for a camp has now been selected on the brow of the 
mountain, near a plenteous stream, with a mountain 
view that is worth the ride from Michigan to see, if 



134 



A Hero oe Faith and Praykr. 



you prize such sights ; also that a tabernacle for the 
meeting is promised next year. 

"By this time you will, having done justice to a 
Kentucky mountain meal, want to know about the 
school. They will enthusiastically explain that a sanc- 
tified Methodist, who can neither read nor write, to drive 
ignorance and false religious teachings from his moun- 
tain home, gave one hundred acres of this beautiful 
land for a holiness camp-meeting and holiness school 
purposes ; that others added to this donation until about 
three hundred acres were donated for this purpose, with 
option of sale on about seven hundred acres more, and 
with the prohibition that no tobacco or intoxicants shall 
be raised, made, or sold on said land, and none of 
either used on the two hundred acres of school and 
camp land. They aim to have a clean place to worship 
God and train the young. They would also tell you 
that one of the main movers is a Kentucky Methodist 
preacher, who, under God, was led into the experience 
of full salvation by reading a certain little book, writ- 
ten by a member of the Michigan Conference. You 
would soon discover that the air is purfe and said to 
be full of 'ozone,' and so stimulating that the tired, heavy 
feeling you had north of the Ohio would soon take its 
wings and fly away. The 'old inhabitants' will tell you 
that this belt is one of the choicest fruit and garden 
spots in the State. You will also learn that while this 
is true, the association encourages none to locate there 
except those who have a pioneer spirit and feel led 
of God to come and educate their children for the King. 
To such they might submit the following question : 

* O why will you tarry mid blizzards and ice, 
When the Southland is oeckoning away ? 
Why not pack up your baggage and move in a trice, 
And no longer waste time by delay ?' 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



135 



The school-building is to be dedicated. (D. Y.) Sep- 
tember 8th, and the school opens the following Monday. 

"Those who have been to ^Mountain Lake Park de- 
clare that this place equals it in natural beauty, and 
some have by faith seen it equal it as a camp-meeting 
of far-reaching results, plus a school governed by the 
principle that morals are of more importance than 
mathematics, and redemption than rhetoric. They have 
seen it surrounded with blooming gardens and bending 
fruit-trees, with happy homes, in which reigns a holy 
people, uncursed by King Alcohol and King Tobacco 
and their legions of attending evils, but where the 
prophecy finds sweet fulfillment that 'it shall come to 
pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new 
wine, and the hills shall flow with milk;' also Isa. ii, 2: 
'And it shall come to pass in the last days that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the 
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
hills, and all nations shall flow into it ;' and Isa. xxxv, i : 
'The solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert 
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.' " 

Mrs. Knapp gives the following account, May 6, 
1902: 

"Dear Brother Hills, — Beulah Heights camp-meet- 
ing was started seven years ago. Mr. Knapp had a 
great burden for the people in the South, and the first 
time he went down there and found old men who could 
neither read nor write, he was greatly moved, and peo- 
ple living in houses without windows, seven or eight in 
one room, and knowing little about God. One old man 
gave two hundred acres for a school and camp-ground. 
A tabernacle has been built and a camp-meeting held 
every year. Brother Rees and others have been there. 
The school was started and a house built, and a young 



1^6 A Hkro o^ Faith axd Praykr. 

lady who gave up her position here taught it. She is 
now in India as a missionary. The schoolhouse was 
burned down, and last year another was built, and God 
sanctified a young lady, a college graduate, and sent 
her there as a teacher. She is all taken up with the 
work. Box after box of clothing has been sent her, and 
she has clothed all the mountain children. The work is 
in the best condition now that it has ever been in. A 
splendid, sanctified man, and a practical farmer, has 
been called down there, and he is improving it every 
way, and they expect to have a larger school another 
year/' 

"A CAMP-MEETING CAMPAIGN. 
Rev. Seth C. Rees 

"Now we are of¥ for 'Dixie.' Our route from Cin- 
cinnati to Beulah Heights Camp, Flat Rock, Ky., lies 
through the famous Blue-grass region of which we have 
heard from childhood. We are informed that the 
scenery is very fine. 

"Our long train, well loaded, was drawn up a heavy 
grade by two huge, panting locomotives, which snorted 
and leaped like wild horses. Thus we left the smoky 
city and the muddy Ohio River. Within two hours we 
were in the heart of the Blue-grass country. As the 
train ran into Lexington we saw, for a swift moment, 
the tall shaft at the grave of Henry Clay. Instantly 
the mind recalled that, in this city, our Henry Clay 
IMorrison (for we all own him or feel that we do) was 
tried by the Alethodist Episcopal Church, South, for at- 
tending a holiness camp-meeting over the ipse dixit of 
a pastor. 

"As we flew through the rich, fertile country, we 
compared the landscape to that of our spiritual Canaan. 



Life oi' Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



137 



The Kentuckians are not the only people who are in 
high clover. Bless God, we are enjoying a land more 
delightsome and a clime more genial and balmy than 
that of this beautiful State. The scenery at High Bridge 
is grand and majestic, but does not compare with that 
of the country 'beyond Jordan.' 

"Later in the day the porter came in, and closed the 
ventilators and lighted the gas. We were nearing the 
foothills of the Cumberland Mountains and in the vicin- 
ity of tunnels. In spiritual railroading we are frequently 
apprised of an approaching tunnel by the way in which 
the Ivord lights up the soul and bids us close the win- 
dows to all but Him, shutting ourselves up to His pres- 
ence only. 

''In our Kentucky journey we pass through four- 
teen tunnels climbing up the mountains, issuing from 
each dark hole higher up the range. In Christian ex- 
perience every trial through which we pass takes us 
higher up the mountain. 

"Half the afternoon we climbed up, up, up the moun- 
tain until the porter threw open the door and cried out 
'Flat Rock,' and we stepped out on the top of these 
rugged old mountains. The camp was three miles from 
the railroad, but it seemed fully three times that dis- 
tance. 

"The camp opened well. The people came on horse- 
back, on muleback, in lumber-wagons, in carts, and on 
foot. We see many things to interest our unsophisti- 
cated eyes. We had heard 'with the hearing of the ear;' 
but now we 'saw with the seeing of the eye.' The ways 
and customs and manners of 'the dwellers in this mount' 
are refreshing in their simplicity. Babies and children 
abound. The arriving hayracks overflow with them. 



1^8 A He:ro of Faith and Praye:r. 

The trees re-echo their sturdy cries ; for, if ever there 
were children who gave evidence of great strength of 
lung, they are the children of Kentucky mountaineers. 

"Seekers were forward for prayers at the first meet- 
ing. The power came down and victory came. These 
illiterate people get saved with the same vehement 
demonstrations and deep emotion that New Englanders 
manifest at the altar. 

*'As the meeting progressed, the congregation was 
made up of people from greater and greater distances. 
Women rode thirty miles across the mountains to reach 
the meeting. 

"Many of the testimonies were interesting. One 
sister with shining face said, 'The Lord has taken the 
fly-up all out of me.' Yes, anger flies up, and that 
phrase is certainly a vivid picture of the action of the 
'old man.' We were amused when a man in cowhide 
boots and flannel shirt said, with great solemnity, 'I 've 
got the blessing, and, by the Lord's good luck and help, 
I 'm bound ter keep it.' 

"A sister : 'They make all manner o' light o' me, 
but I do n't mind that. Jesus sanctifies my soul.' 

"A brother : 'I 'm on the King's highway. I hed a 
hard time to git thar ; but, bless God, I 'm thar now.' 

"A number of mountain preachers have attended the 
meetings. One of these, who is more than an ordinary 
preacher among them, was asked how he felt when seek- 
ing sanctification. He replied, 'I felt like Bob Inger- 
soll (?) did when he was a-dyin' when he said, "Lord, 
if there be a Lord, save my soul, if I 've got a soul.^' 
I felt. Lord, if you are the Lord, give me sanctification 
if there is a sanctification.' When we listened to this 
incident the thought occurred to us that it may be 
prophecy, if not history, for 'Bob' may pray Hke that yet. 



Life: of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 139 

"Rev. M. W. Knapp, who opened up this mountain 
work four years ago, has accompHshed a most blessed 
work all over this wild country. God doubtless intends 
Beulah Heights to be a great center for holiness in this 
section. The opportunities are great. The harvest truly 
is plenteous. He that reapeth receiveth wages. It is 
our prayer that God may lay His hand on some of His 
children and call them to these golden fields. The open- 
ings for schools to teach the people to read and write 
are splendid. The doors for Holy Ghost ministry are 
wide open. It is a rough field, but what are we for, 
if not to deny ourselves for Jesus and rough it for the 
gospel of our God? 

"The camp increased in size and interest to the close. 
Sunday was a great day in many ways. The people 
poured in from all sides, and we all wondered where 
they came from, for the country is but thinly settled. 

"One of the things most needed, as we have said, 
is a school." 

The rest of the article is on some other leaf of 
the Pentecostal Herald which did not reach me. Here 
is "Bessie's" account : 

"While the cry from foreign lands has been urgent, 
nothing could be more despairing or more heartbreak- 
ing than the cry from the mountains of Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee. There are thousands of souls 
living in these mountains, many of whom have never 
even heard of Jesus, and the greater proportion of the 
rest only knowing Him in an indefinite, ignorant sort 
of a way. Brother Knapp was much moved through 
the needs of the work among the mountains, and, while 
burdened for and praying for it, God answered prayer 
and laid it upon the heart of a brother to deed to Mr. 
Knapp, as trustee, two hundred and fifty acres of land 



140 



A He:ro of Faith and Prayer. 



at Flat Rock, Ky. This being on the mountains, with 
such beautiful scenery and such delightful atmosphere, 
it was named 'Beulah Heights,' and a salvation day- 
school was started, and many workers in the foreign 
fields do not have to encounter more deprivation and 
self-denial than was needed at this place. But, bless 
God, He has called some who are 'counting it all joy' 
to have the privilege of pouring out their lives for these 
mountain people. They are surrounded on every hand 
by idleness and abject poverty, ignorance and super- 
stition. The children were hungry for books and to 
learn to read, and God has been working. The past 
summer Mr. Knapp became very much burdened for 
this field of labor, and, especially after Sister Duff was 
called to it, he felt that God was going to give victory 
such as had never been there before. There had been 
already a camp-meeting from year to year; but the one 
last fall was of greater power and unction than ever 
before. The mountaineers think nothing of going from 
twenty to twenty-five miles over the mountains to hear 
the gospel. The children are learning to read and write, 
and getting an experimental knowledge of Jesus as a 
personal Savior and Sanctifier. Salvation books, book- 
lets, and tracts are being scattered all through that dis- 
trict ; boxes of clothing from different parts of the 
country have been received and distributed among the 
needy. Mr. Knapp's expectation was that God was 
leading to the establishment of an Industrial Home and 
School were boys and girls, who were too poor to go 
to a city school, might work, and at the same time study 
and prepare themselves for the whitened harvest-fields. 
'Xast fall there entered the Bible-school at Cincin- 
nati, Brother and Sister Butler, of Indiana. Brother 
Butler said that he was saved and sanctified. He had 



LiP^E OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



141 



been a steward in the Quaker Church, and walked in 
the Hght, and Hved clean and upright ; but he had not 
been long in the white light of the Bible-school before 
God showed him his heart, and one evening he startled 
the school by asking them to pray for him ; that he had 
found out he was not sanctified. His wife immediately 
followed him, and said he was surely mistaken, that 
he had lived a sanctified life at home, and she felt that 
he had the experience. But he knew his own heart, and, 
like Isaiah, cried out, 'Woe is me, for I am a man of 
unclean lips !' It was not long until he received the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost, and the fire and power 
and unction of the Holy Ghost rested upon him. We 
knew that he knew God, and we felt that his prayers 
went straight through to the Throne. Soon after this 
his wife also discovered that she was not sanctified ; but 
she died out to the world and to friends and loved ones, 
and to self, and Jesus came into her heart as her all 
in all. Brother Knapp loved them both. He always 
said he felt as if Brother Butler was one of God's oaks, 
so strong and true ; and he felt as if the Lord wanted 
him to take up the work at Beulah Heights. Mr. Knapp 
talked to the Lord about it, and told Him that Brother 
Butler had practical knowledge of farming, etc., and 
asked Him if it was His will to give him a 'call.' The 
days passed on, and the call did not come ; but a few 
days before his illness. Brother Knapp was satisfied that 
Brother Butler would go to Beulah Heights. God let 
him know it out of heaven. Soon after Brother Knapp 
went home to glory, this brother wrote us that he felt 
God's call to Beulah Heights, and (D. V.) would go, 
April 1st, and take up the work. We expect, under God, 
he will oversee the work, at the same time traverse those 
mountains telling the tidings of a full and free salva- 



142 



A He:ro oi' Faith and Prayer. 



tion, and also that the Bible-school students will, some 
of them, go forth in this work among the mountains." 
Here, then, is an annual camp-meeting going on 
since 1894, teaching holiness to multitudes of people, 
and more than a mile square of land dedicated to a 
holiness school and the work of teaching and spreading 
the gospel of full salvation, given by God to this man 
of prayer. Who can measure the beneficent influences 
which, starting up in these "Beulah Heights," like a 
mountain stream, may grow wider and deeper and flow 
down through the years, a river of salvation, into the 
sea of an endless eternity? 

MUSIC BOOKS. 

During these years of revival effort and of pressing 
the battle with holiness books, Brother Knapp fell in 
with Rev. L. L. Pickett, a kindred spirit. While neither 
of these brethren possessed a high order of poetic 
genius, when judged by classic literary standards, they 
both wrote verses accurate in mechanical construction 
so as to be adapted for musical composition ; and they 
breathed into their lines their own devout and deeply 
religious spirit. Their devotional hymns and Brother 
Pickett's music took with the uncritical masses, and 
helped them spiritually to a better life. That is what 
these brothers aimed at, and their purpose was realized. 

Knapp thus speaks of it : "Though the writer is not 
a musician, he has melody in his heart, such as only 
God can place there. Though he has not the gift of 
song, he feels its value, and magnifies its power in win- 
ning souls and building up the kingdom, in all his writ- 
ings. Usually the title of the book, with a dim outline 
of the same, would come before the book itself. To 
his surprise, the title of a song-book came to him, and 



Lii^e: of Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



143 



God gave a desire to help bring one forth. Songs be- 
gan to come to him — songs which magnified the per- 
sonaHty of the Holy Ghost and the return of our Lord, 
judgment, eternity, and kindred themes. Then God's 
providences threw him in contact with Rev. L. L. 
Pickett, the able musical composer of the great Salva- 
tion Movement South. Songs and tunes came down 
from heaven into our souls. They flowed from our pens, 
were sung in our meetings where we were engaged 
together. God's seal was evidently put upon them, and 
'Tears and Triumphs' became a fact in the world of 
song, soon followed by 'Tears and Triumphs No. 2,' 
and soon after by 'Tears and Triumphs Combined.' A 
quarter of a million of these books went rapidly upon 
the market, to sing the devil down and to sing the 
saints heavenward." 

I have been told that Brother Knapp could not sing 
a tune. I never heard him sing, living with him for 
weeks. If this is a fact, this case is almost without a 
parallel that such a man should write scores of usable 
hymns, and be used of God to originate a song-book 
for the masses that had phenomenal success and was 
wonderfully owned and blessed of God. 

I may mention here that, just before his translation, 
he joined with R. E. McNeill in giving another song- 
book, called "Bible Songs," to the public. I find that 
thirty-two of the hymns in it were composed by Brother 
Knapp. This is another instance of a man with a 
limited gift being graciously and marvelously used by 
God in a way most unexpected. 



CHAPTER XL 
GREATNESS IN SERVICE. 

*< Nothing can make a man truly great but being truly good and par- 
taking of God' s holiness." — Matthew Henry. 

' ' A solid and substantial greatness of soul looks down with neglect on 
the censures and applauses of the multitude." — Addison. 

*' If I am asked, < Who is the greatest man ? ' I answer, ' The best ; ' 
and if I am required to say, * Who is the bestl ' I reply, * He that has de- 
served most of his fellow-creatures.' " — Sir William Jones. 

"We can not look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without 
gaining something by him. He is the living light-fo-;ntain which it is good 
and pleasant to be near : the light which enlightens, which has enlightened 
the darkness of the world ; and this, not as a kindled lamp only, but rather 
as a natural luminary, shining by the gift of Heaven ; a flowing light-foun- 
tain, as I say, of native, original insight, of manhood and heroic nobleness, 
in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well with them." — Carlyle. 

Brother Knapp was truly what Carlyle called a "liv- 
ing, flowing light-fountain." It was good and "pleasant 
to be near him." And he was "a luminary shining by 
the gift of heaven." He had what Addison called "solid 
and substantial greatness of soul." And he measured 
up to Matthew Henry's definition. He was truly great 
because he was truly good; and he was truly good be- 
cause a "partaker of God's holiness." 

This man went shining on his way, pouring out 
gracious influences on every side, shedding heavenly 
light, like a bright star flaming in its orbit. His paper, 
the RevivaHst, kept increasing in scope and circulation. 

144 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



145 



i 



He was encouraging other servants of God to write, 
and giving them friendly help in pubHshing.* It was 
the brotherly kindness of this dear man that introduced 
this biographer to the holiness public, and started a 
friendship Hfelong, and influences that will flow on into 
eternity. 

Meantime he continued to write himself. He thus 
speaks of his next book : 

''Another book had been for years upon the writer's 
mind. He was led to see that Satan gains his greatest 
victories by masking his agents and his plans behind 
the guise o'f seeming goodness. The conviction for 
such a book increased. Light on its different phases 
kept flashing from the skies, until I was so burdened 
with it that I felt God's time had come for me to write 
it. I took my pen; His help was at hand, and 'Light- 
ning Bolts from Pentecostal Skies ; or. The Devices of 
the Devil Unmasked,' is the result." 

This is one of Brother Knapp's largest and keenest 
books. Some passages are as sharp and incisive as a 
two-edged sword. "God is evidently owning and using 
it for the purpose which He had in view when laying it 
upon His servant's heart to write it." 

We give below two tastes of this book : 

"WORSE THAN PAGANS. 

"Modern worldlings who are resisting the Hght of 
the gospel as it now shines are a million-fold worse than 
were the honest pagans of that age, yet modern methods 
give them Church membership and ofBcial position on 
every hand. Truly, the Pentecostal constitution is 
violated and God displeased, and His curse rests on 
such a combination. Imagine Peter joining some 
worldly society to 'extend his influence' and get help 
10 



146 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

or protection should he or his family ever 'come to 
want.' Yet would-be modern Peters are doing the same 
far and wide. But they differ widely from Pentecostal 
Peter, in that they are destitute of his zeal for God, 
his spirit of self-sacrifice, his assurance of salvation, his 
endowment of the Holy Ghost, his power to heal the 
sick, and to bring down revivals of flaming fire in the 
proud Jerusalems where so many of them have their 
appointments. What apostle in the Pentecostal zone 
ever announced a 'Necktie Social,' or a 'Singin' Skule,' 
or 'Crazy Social,' at the opening or close of one of their 
discourses, and followed the announcement with the 
'hope that it will be liberally patronized ?' Yet how fre- 
quently professed apostles of our sleeping Churches do 
this ! How^ few have the conviction and courage to say 
'No,' and teach their people the difference between 
Satan's shams and God's gold ! One must be dead in- 
deed to dare to do such a thing. In many places it 
w^ould cause a volcanic eruption which would land the 
preacher away in some backwoods Carmel, where he 
would be tempted to feel that he was the only one not 
bowing the knee to Baal, and where his auditors would 
largely be mosquitoes, ticks, and pine stumps, unless 
God should interfere, and, as with Paul at Iconium, bear 
His faithful servant to some fairer field of usefulness. 
We hear of no members of the Pentecostal Churches 
who gave more time and money to worldly orders than 
to the Church ; for they were not conformed to the 
world, but were transformed by the renewing of their 
mind to prove the perfect and good and acceptable will 
of God. Hence 'No compromise' was stamped by the 
Spirit on every Pentecostal Christian's brow. That seal 
is not stamped there in lodges, nor theaters, nor at 



Life op Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



147 



Church frolics, though quickly lost at these places, but 
at the altar of prayer, in the secret place of the Most 
High, under the burning seal of the Pentecostal bap- 
tism." 

*« GENUINE REPENTANCE. 

''Repentance is the first step up the ascent which 
leads into the temple of regeneration. None can enter 
without taking this step, and none can abide herein with- 
out keeping it. The hope of a professed Christian who 
has not done this is a damning delusion, which will, un- 
less dispelle'd by the truth, drown in the depths of 
eternal despair. 'He that doeth sin is of the devil' (i 
John iii, 8), 'Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no 
sin' (i John iii, 9), are Divine declarations which fre- 
quently fall on deaf ears. Yet they are solemnly and 
awfully true. They unmask millions of the devil's dupes 
with which the nominal Churches are crowded, but that 
does not invalidate them. Xet God be true, though 
every man a liar.' A repentance which holds on to a 
single sin is a fraud, which must be abandoned here 
or exposed at the judgment. Pentecostal converts at- 
tested the genuineness of their repentance by burning 
the bad books in their keeping, though it cost them 
thousands of dollars. Barrels of whisky poured in the 
streets, and bonfires of tobacco and kindred Satanic 
property, would signify a similar work to-day. When 
people genuinely repent of all sin they welcome such 
sacrifices. Yes ; this is severe on professors who drink 
on the sly or are themselves slaves to tobacco. But it 
will be harder still for them at the judgment unless they 
repent. Genuine repentance, such as must exist to pos- 
sess salvation, accepts the justice of eternal punishment 



1^8 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

and renounces every sin. It also embraces restitution 
and complete reformation of life and character. False 
repentance is the devil's substitute, which he seeks to 
palm oft on souls to their ruin. It professes to break 
oft sins that are known, but covers those that can be 
hid from human eyes. It is ashamed of itself, and seeks 
self-justification by sham excuses. It leads to false se- 
curity, hardness of heart and conscience, self-righteous- 
ness, false peace, false hope, hypocrisy, and hell." 

The following are a few specimens of Brother 
Knapp's editorials during these years. It will be seen 
that he did not write on "the zi'cafJicr,'' or "politics," or 
some other secular theme. Everything with him must 
touch the core of things and have a practical bearing 
upon spiritual life and soul-destiny. Perhaps that is why 
God blessed him so, and made him such a blessing: 

«♦ APPALLING RESULTS. 

"The following are among some of the fearful results 
of neglecting to preach repentance, holiness, and hell: 

"Sham professors instead of rejoicing converts. 

"Living in sin instead of saved from sin. 

''Counterfeit spiritual coin instead of pure gold. 

"Aping religion instead of living salvation. 

"Love for the world and its treasures instead of love 
for salvation and its pleasures. 

"Opposition to holiness instead of hunger for it. 

"Itching under true gospel preaching instead of 
shouting over it. 

"Resisting the Spirit instead of being led by Him. 

"Rotten homes instead of righteous homes. 

"^lultitudes spinning down to hell instead of press- 
ing up to heaven. 



LiFK OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 149 

"Clothed in selfish display instead of robed in right- 
eousness. 

"Persons neglecting sacred family, religious, and 
business obligations still professing to be Christians. 

"Churches filled with Satan's goats instead of God's 
sheep. 

"The only remedy for this deplorable state of affairs 
is a New Testament revival on the line of repentance, 
confession, restitution, regeneration, and of the baptism 
with the Holy Ghost. 

.'•^SANCTIFI CATION IN THE KNEES. 

"Entire sanctification is the name of the work which 
Jesus does for the believer when He baptizes Him with 
the Holy Ghost and fire. It crowns Christ fully within, 
and possesses the entire being for God and Him alone. 

"There are experiences under the name of entire 
sanctification which do not seem to thus perfectly pos- 
sess people. 

"There is a sort of a theological sanctification, which 
consist^^s in the acceptance of the doctrine ; proclaiming 
and fighting for it. This might be called head sanc- 
tification. Its possessors are zealots. 

"Another experience goes deeper than this, and 
reaches the heart, and the whole heart, and will yield 
fully to God, and is filled with perfect love. This might 
be called heart-sanctification. People who have it, not 
only have the blessing in their heads and in their hearts, 
but they are so educated that they feel that their money 
belongs to God, and they are glad stewards to use it 
as His Word directs. This might be called pocket- 
sanctification. It is a stalwart type, such as God and 
this age demands. 

"Still another class have it in head, heart, and pocket. 



I50 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 



but have not learned that the secret of advancing in 
this experience and growing in it is prayer, and there- 
fore to their knees they go, and on their knees they stay, 
until 

' Heaven comes down their souls to greet, 
And glory crowns the mercy seat' 

''Until a person gets this kind of sanctification in 
his knees, his experience will be vacillating, his efforts 
to advance holiness will often be unwise and hurried, 
and his words will sometimes hack like a dull sword 
instead of being freely spoken. 

A genuine, full-fledged case of entire sanctification 
clarifies the head, purifies and fills the heart, controls 
the pocket, and fully consecrates the knees. 

"May such cases continue to multiply until the 
Church and the world are full of men who move the 
arm which moves the world, and precipitate revivals 
of full salvation through the land ! 

"SPIRITUAL WOLVES. 

"Men who persecute the Christian, and especially 
the Christian ministry, as Herod did Peter, are com- 
pared to wolves. Jesus said : 'I send you forth in 
the midst of wolves. If they have persecuted Me, they 
will also persecute you.' They howled after our Mas- 
ter, and finally killed Him, and would destroy His fol- 
lowers. 

"Wolves are swift-footed after their prey. Human 
wolves are just as fieet for their victims. 

"Wolves devour the innocent. Spiritual wolves 
thirst for similar prey. Both go in crowds, and con- 
spire together against the defenseless. Both take ad- 
vantage of the weak and helpless, and fear the strong. 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



151 



Both fall out among themselves, and destroy their own 
companions. Both are cowardly and stealthy. Both 
prefer darkness to li^ht for their depredations. 

"Wolves fear the fire. Believers baptized with the 
Holy Ghost and fire are a terror to human wolves. 

''MISTAKES ABOUT CONSECRATION. 

"It is a great mistake to substitute repentance for 
Bible consecration. 

"The people whom Paul exhorted to full sanctifi- 
cation were' those who had 'turned from their idols to 
serve the living and true God,' and to wait for His 
Son from heaven. 

"Only people who are citizens of His kingdom can 
claim His sanctifying power. Those who still have idols 
to renounce may be candidates for conversion, but are 
not for the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. 

"It is a mistake in consecration to suppose that the 
person making it has anything of his own to give. We 
are not our own, but we are bought with a price, and 
entire sanctification is simply taking our hands ofif from 
God's property. To willfully withhold anything from 
God is to be a God-robber. 

"It is a mistake to substitute a mere mental assent 
to God's proprietorship and right to all we have, while 
withholding complete devotement to Him. 

"This is theoretical consecration — a rock on which 
we fear multitudes are being wrecked. 

"Consecration which does not embrace the cruci- 
fixion of self and the funeral of all false ambitions is 
not the kind which will bring the holy fire. 

"A consecration is imperfect which does not em- 
brace the speaking faculty and believing faculty, the 



1^2 A He:ro oi^ Faith and Prayi:r. 

imagination and every power of mind, soul, and body, 
and give all completely and absolutely and forever into 
the hands of Jesus, turning a deaf egr to every opposing 
voice. 

"Reader, have you made such a consecration? 
Whether you name this act consecration or abandon- 
ment or devotement or crucifixion, it must embrace all 
of this, or it will prove a bed of quicksand to sink your 
soul, instead of a full salvation balloon, which will safely 
bear you above the fog and malaria and turmoil of the 
world, where you can triumphantly sing: 

* I rise to float in realms of light, above the world and sin, 
With heart made pure and garments white, and Christ enthroned within.' 

"MISTAKES IN BELIEVING. 

''It is a mistake to teach believers to 'only believe' 
for pardon without genuine repentance ; for they can 
no more do it than iron can swim. 

"It is a mistake to teach seekers for entire sanctifi- 
cation to 'only believe,' without complete abandonment 
to God at every point ; for they can no more do it than 
an anchored ship can sail. 

"It is a mistake to substitute mere verbal assent for 
obedient trust. 'Only believe' is a fatal snare to all 
who fall into either of the above-named traps. 

"It is a mistake to believe that the altar sanctifieth 
the gift without the assurance that all is on the altar. 
If even the end of your tongue, or one cent of your 
money, or a straw's weight of false ambition, or spirit of 
dictation, or one ounce of your reputation or will or be- 
lieving powers, be left ofif the altar, you can no more 
beHeve than a bird without wings can fly. 

" 'Only believe' is for sinners who are truly penitent 
and fully submitted, and those only. 



LiFii oi- Rev. M. W. Knapp, jc^ 

" 'Only believe' is only for those seekers of holiness 
who are truly converted, fully consecrated, absolutely 
abandoned, and completely crucified to everything but 
the whole will of God. For these, and these only. 

"Teachers who apply it to people who have not 
reached the stations named should be taught. All who 
have reached them may lift up their hands in faith, and 
look God in the face, and trium.phantly sing : 

' The blood, the blood is all my plea, 
Hallelujah, it cleanseth me !' 

"TAKE TIME TO PRAY. 

" Take time to pray ! 
When fears and foes distress you, 
And tiresome toils oppress you, 
Then the Master waits to bless you, 
If you '11 take time to pray. 

Chorus. — 

Take time to pray ! 
jCome what there may 
To stand in the way, 
Look often to Jesus, 
And take time to pray. 

Take time to pray ! 
When cares of life surround you, 
And Satan would confound you, 
Christ will throw His arms around you. 

If you take time to pray. 

Take time to pray ! 
When little things annoy you, 
And worry would destroy you, 
Nothing better can employ you. 

Than to take time to pray. 

Take time to pray ! 
When fickle friends forsake you. 
Disasters overtake you, 
Repine, it will not make you. 

If you take time to pray. 



1^4 ^^ Hero of Faith axd Prayer. 

Take time to pray ! 
When emotions have subsided, 
And the enemy derided, 
If in God you have confided, 

Always take time to pray. 

Take time to pray ! 
Would you speak or preach with power. 
Keep the Pentecostal dower, 
Have the Spirit every hour, 

You must take time to pray." 

About the close of the five years of his Hfe covered 
by this chapter, our brother became a Premillenniahst, 
and made the follov^ang announcement in his paper 
under date of February, 1897: 

"THE AIM OF THE REVIVALIST. 

Is to present a Pentecostal experience as the basis of 
g^enuine revival life in the individual and the Church, 
and to ignore no Bible doctrine which is an incentive 
to or result of this life. We are fully persuaded that 
one of these doctrines is that of the second coming of 
our Lord, as taught in the New Testament, and that 
every fully-developed Pentecostal experience includes 
this Pentecostal expecting of the coming of the King. 
While in no sense of the word do we substitute this for 
the main issue of the sanctifying work of our Savior, 
yet we design to give its notice its proper place in our 
columns, and may for a time give it more attention, 
to make amends for past neglect, than we otherwise 
would. We design a series of articles on this subject, 
and begin with the first from the pen of our much-be- 
loved and abundant in labors Brother Pickett, editor 
of 'The Christian Soldier,' one of the ablest workers, 
writers, and teachers in the whole Holiness Movement. 



Lii^'i^ oi^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp 



"THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE 



^55 



Of the second coming we understand to be that held 
by Jesus Christ, Paul, Peter, and John, and to embrace 
the following points : 

"i. Jesus is coming again 'in like manner' as He 
went away — per,sonally and bodily. 

''2. Believers are to live in constant readiness for 
His arrival. 

**3. When He comes. He will translate the living 
saints and resurrect the dead ones, all meeting Him in 
the air. 

"4. The awful judgments mentioned in Revelation 
will then be poured upon the wicked, followed by 
Christ's millennial reign on earth of one thousand 
years. 

"5. Then comes the final judgment of the wicked, 
the new heaven, new earth, and eternity. 

"If any of our readers wish, for the truth's sake, to 
ask questions on this subject, we will be glad to have 
them do so ; or if any see reasons why they think it 
would be better to omit the treatment of this theme 
from our paper, and kindly notify us, we will, by God's 
grace, answer or quit. 

"We wish only God's will and the greatest good to 
the greatest number. Next month we hope to notice 
some reasons why this doctrine has been slighted." 

What books he read and studied which led to 
this change of views I can not learn. I presume it 
was the influence of Brother Godbey. About this time 
there grew up a strong and intimate friendship be- 
tween these two earnest souls, that continually deep- 
ened while life lasted. Business relations brought them 



1^6 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

much together, and probably it led to this change of 
opinion on this much-discussed doctrine. It occurs to 
me also that his association with Brother Pickett in 
revival work and in the making of "Tears and Tri- 
umphs" might have been a potent influence upon his 
mind. 

Upon this subject the holiness people are much di- 
vided, and equally good and scholarly people are on 
both sides. But the grace of sanctification enables them 
to work together on the "main issue of the sanctifying 
work of our Savior," and to respect each other's opin- 
ions and the right honestly to entertain them. Cer- 
tainly neither side will win their argument and convert 
those of an opposite mind by the use of bitter epi- 
thets and clubs and pitchforks. The time for that is 
past, especially among those professing holiness. 

These new views of Brother Knapp seemed to be 
a great comfort to him. Chapter X of his book, "Light- 
ning Bolts," was devoted to this theme. It was his 
cheering hope that he might live to be caught up with 
his LvOrd in the air ; but he met Him rather, as Paul 
did, by passing through the gateway of death. 

He heard the welcome call to which he gladly re- 
sponded, as described in one of his own little poems : 

'* HEAVENLY TREASURES. 

"fOne of our missionaries, writing to a friend, after speaking of the many 
friends who have gone home since she left America, adds : ' But, O blessed thought ! 
my heart is not in this world, therefore its dearest treasures can not fall.'] 

" Never fail ! though friends may leave us, 
As we labor for the Lord; 
Closer still will Christ receive us, 
Trusting in his faithful Word. 



Life of Rfv. ]\1. W. Kxapp. 

Never fail ! for o'er the river, 
Resting from their labors here, 

Friends and loved ones dwell forever, 
Waiting to receive us there. 

Never fail I though earthly treasures 

Rust and molder to decay; 
Worldly joys with all their pleasures, 

Pass like fleeting dreams away. 

Never fail ! though hills and mountains 

With the ages disappear ; 
And the trumpet of the angel, 

Sounds the end of all things here. 

Never fail ! What holy gladness 
Wells within this joyful heart I 

Bidding every thought of sadness. 
Now and evermore depart. 

Never fail ! For from the Master 
Soon we* 11 hear this welcome call. 

Come, ye blessed of my Father, ' 

Thine are friends, and heaven and all." 



157 



CHAPTER XII. 
A POTENT INFLUENCE. 

" No human being can come into this world without increasing or di 
minishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present, but of 
every subsequent age of humanity. No one can detach himself from this 
connection. There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche 
along the disk of non-existence, to which he can retreat from his relations 
to others, where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the 
moral destiny of the world. Everywhere his presence or absence will be 
felt ; everywhere he will have companions who will be better or worse for 
his influence. 

' * It is an old saying, and one of fearful and fathomless import, that we 
are forming characters for eternity. Forming characters ! WTiose ? Our own 
or others'? Both ; and in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsi- 
bility of our existence. Who is sufficient for the thought ? Thousands of 
my fellow-beings will yearly enter eternity with characters differing from 
those they would have carried thither, had I never lived. The sunlight of 
that world will reveal my finger-marks in their primary formations, and in 
their successive strata of thought and life." — Elihu Burritt. 

It seems to me, as I look over the items of our 
dear brother's Hfe, that I have never read the biog- 
raphy of one who tried to live more wisely or conscien- 
tiously in view of his influence. From the hour of his 
conversion until the hour of his death he tried to put 
what Elihu Burritt, "the learned blacksmith," calls 
"the finger-marks" of influence upon all souls for good. 
It made him ingeniously inventive of ways and means 
to bless men. 

We have now reached the last four years of his life. 
As a biographer I have here a little firmer footing; for 

158 



Life: of Rev. M. W. Kxapp. i^^ 

it was in 1897 that I first met Brother Knapp, and from 
that time until the close of life I knew him intimately. 
He graciously found in me something to respect, if not 
to admire and love ; and he certainly gained my deep- 
est respect and admiration and affection. I have spent 
weeks in his home at different times, and still more 
time in the city in evangelistic work. Scarcely a month 
ever passed after that, and usually not two weeks, with- 
out a letter passing between us. 

Brother Knapp had already become the publisher 
of my book, ''Holiness and Power," before I had ever 
seen him. But I had an engagement for a series of 
meetings in two or three Churches in the city in the 
autumn of 1897, and there we met. It meant more 
to both of us than either of us realized. 

I found him in his publishing-house in the Young 
Men's Christian Association Building, a little bundle of 
nerves and brain and heart, all alive and on fire for 
God and holiness. His black eyes gleamed like two 
coals of fire ; his speech was quick, nervous, and de- 
cisive, and he moved about like one easily master of the 
situation. 

Not content with the cares of a religious paper and 
of writing and publishing books, in October he rented 
a little room in a rather disreputable part of the city, 
I think one or two streets east of Walnut Street, 
that had last been used as a low saloon, and there 
started a mission. I was there the day they were 
cleaning it out, and heard the first or second sermon 
preached by Godbey, who opened it with a series of 
meetings. It was my first introduction to Godbey. 

The Churches of his own and all other denomina- 
tions were too slow and formal for Knapp. Many of 
them did not see a half dozen converts a year. The 



i6o A H£:ro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

preachers were too dead and powerless to keep him 
company, or even sympathize with his passion for souls 
or care about his efforts. In that old, ramshackle ex- 
saloon he opened up daily meetings against the devil 
and the powers of darkness ; and in one year he had 
seen seven hundred and -fifty people saved or sanctified. 

The expenses of some of the big city Churches about 
him were undoubtedly twenty times as great as the 
expense of his mission, and his mission probably ac- 
compHshed twenty times as much good. One can 
scarcely help reflecting, when he sees such a contrast in 
the returns on the investments, that there is some- 
thing radically wrong in the management of many of 
the city Churches. The expense of the great stone 
edifices and the organs and choirs and pastors is so 
great, and the returns in souls saved are so few ! 

From that time on, either in a gospel tent or a mis- 
sion, or in his own building on the "Mount of Bless- 
ings," he had daily meetings while he lived, and thou- 
sands of souls saved and sanctified were the fruits. 

I am now compelled to record, with no little regret, 
an event which probably had much to do with his ulti- 
mately leaving the Methodist Church. He wrote the 
whole story in a pamphlet entitled ^'Pentecostal Aggres- 
siveness." From it I will quote sufficiently to give the 
main facts and his defense of his course. I happened 
to be in the city holding meetings for Knapp at the 
time the correspondence was going on relative to the 
Maryland meeting. He tried to get me to go in his 
place, so as to avoid collision with Church regulations ; 
but a prior engagement prevented me. I know that 
at that time (1888) he was as loyal a son of the Church 
as Martin Luther was in the beginning of his career; 
and the last thing he then thought of was that he 



Lii^iv 01- Ri:v. M. W. Knapp. i6i 

should ever leave the Church. People equally good 
will always be divided in their judgment of the wisdom 
of his action in so doing. But that he was slow and 
prayerful and tenderly conscientious in the matter none 
can have a reasonable doubt. I will let him tell his 
own story in these pages. Men may sit in judgment 
and come to what conclusion they will. God, however, 
may reverse their decision. Here is Knapp's story: 

"PART I.— ACCUSED. 

Introductory. 

"God put it into the hearts of a committee to invite 
the writer to conduct the meetings of the Chesapeake 
Holiness Union at Bowens, Md., and into his heart to 
accept of the invitation. 

''He was aided in the meetings by Rev. E. H. Dash- 
iel, an evangelist of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, of unblemished character, and now pastor of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church at Rockland, Delaware ; 
also by Mrs. M. Vorn Holtz, a mother in Israel, member 
of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, 
Ohio, whose prayers for years have helped pull Pente- 
costal revivals from the skies. 

"The meeting from its incipiency was persistently 
opposed by the pastor and presiding elder of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, though they had no appoint- 
ment there. 

"They carried their complaints to the Michigan Con- 
ference, of which the writer is a member, and in his 
absence a report favorable to them was given. As the 
report has been given great publicity, and as the ques- 
tion is likely to be up at the coming Conference, I feel 
that God would have me call the attention of the 
members of the Michigan Conference to the following 
II 



l62 A Hero of Faith and Praye:r. 

facts. I do this, not as a personal defense, but in vin- 
dication of the principles involved, for the triumphs 
of which I am willing to sufifer the loss of all things. 

''A. — The Compi^aint. 

"The opposing pastor and presiding elder presented 
the following complaints to the Michigan Conference : 

*'i. That our meeting was not interdenominational. 

"2. That it was an opposition meeting to a Circuit 
Grove meeting. 

"3. That it was promoted by a 'bitter, unreliable 
faction,' whose standing in the community was 'bad.' 

"4. That I violated paragraph 223 of the Methodist 
Episcopal Discipline. 

"5. That the complaints were not made because of 
opposition, but that complainants 'indorse and preach 
the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection.' 

"6. That a statement made by the accused that 
complainants did not take Disciplinary course is false. 

"7. That the meeting was held in the bounds of 
Calvert Charge. 

B. — The Report of the Committee. 

"The committee appointed by the Conference to in- 
vestigate the matter and recommend action to be taken 
reported : 

"i. That they found the accused 'clearly guilty' of 
improper conduct and contumacy, and recommended 
that he be reprimanded by the bishop, who reproved 
it for exceeding its limits, and thus proposing to fix 
penalty without trial. 

"2. Indorsement of the course of complainants. 



LiF'E OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 16^ 

''3. That the holding of our meeting brought 'dis- 
sension and injury to the Church.' 

**4. That the accused be admonished that a repe- 
tition of 'offense' would subject to 'penalty/ 

"I. 

''Reasons why I Conducted the Chesapeake Holi- 
ness Union Meeting, July, 1898. 

"First. Because of persistent pleadings to come 
and help lead the people into the experiences of sal- 
vation. 

"Second. Inability, after earnest efifort, to secure a 
proper person to go in my place. Those who would 
have gladly gone were hindered by prior engagements. 

"Third. An inward call from God, which deepened 
into a mighty conviction. 

"Fourth. The conviction of many true and deeply 
spiritual believers with whom I counseled. 

"Fifth. The fact that the meeting was an interde- 
nominational one, and hence, by many past precedents, 
was considered outside of the complainants' protest. 

"Sixth. The fact that God enabled me to adjust 
my heavy work and my appointments in such a way 
as to go, and no preventing providence hindered. 

"Seventh. I had reason to believe that if I did not 
go, another, who might sow error and hurt the Church 
and the kingdom, would be there. 

"Eighth. Because I believed that, in going, I was 
acting in harmony with the Discipline, which says we 
shall 'go where needed most,' and 'use all diligence 
to drive away false and erroneous doctrines,' such as 
I had reason to believe were being sown. 



1 



164 A Hkro 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

''Ninth. God gave me the gift of faith that He 
would give me a revival there, and I knew He would 
not give me that gift unless He wished me to go. 

''Tenth. I believed that, when all the facts and the 
revival that would crown my work there should be 
known to the Michigan Conference, it would sustain 
me in my position. When I went, I did so with the 
thought that, if I found I had been deceived, I would, 
God leading, withdraw ; but as I found the movement 
of God, and as the protestors did not take the Disci- 
plinary steps (see paragraphs 223 and 224), I supposed 
they saw their mistake. 

"Eleventh. Because questioning my convictions 
brought restlessness, and obeying them brought peace. 

"Twelfth. Going was in harmony with my commis- 
sion from the Great Head of the Church and the prin- 
ciples and precepts of the Word of God, which our 
Discipline declares to be the 'only and sufficient rule 
for our faith and practice.' 

"Why I Conducted the Chesapeake Holiness 
Union Meeting, July, 1899. 

"Most of the reasons which applied to my going 
the first time did with equal force to my going the 
second time. Further : 

"First. I had agreed to go before the Conference 
requested me not to do so, and the Word of God, the 
providence of God, the Spirit of God, all said 'Go.' 

"Second. I was led to see that great questions of 
civil and religious liberty are involved. 

"Third. Because to refrain from going would be 
to become a partner to the opposition to the meet- 
ing and guilty of the blood of souls. 



LiFK oi^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 165 

"Fourth. Because the interests of the kingdom of 
heaven demanded that the principles involved be vin- 
dicated. 

''Fifth. Because, if Methodism, as some claim, has 
reached a point where she considers holding such a 
meeting under such circumstances an 'offense and in- 
jury,' as your committee declared, there are thousands 
of people who wish to know it ; and the final verdict 
of the Michigan Conference, believed to be one of the 
most spiritual in the whole Connection, is especially 
desirable. 

"Sixth. 'Because my convictions of right were so 
strong, and confidence of victory there so great, that 
no penalty had any terror to me. 

"Seventh. I felt that the complainants were in the 
wrong, and the fact that they had misled my Confer- 
ence in the matter did not release me. 

"Eighth. Because I preach and teach that where a 
merely human restriction, such as this, collides with a 
Divine requirement, that the hand-car must give way 
to the express train. 

"Ninth. I thought that, when all the facts should 
be placed before it, the Conference might reconsider 
its action ; but if not, I had better meet its frown now 
than God's, and the blood of souls at the final judg- 
ment. 

"Tenth. My call to this meeting was as clear as to 
the ministry or to any of the other works which have 
been intrusted to my hands, and upon which God has 
so unmistakably set His seal. The success of the meet- 
ing, the blessing from heaven which sweetly thrills my 
own heart in the course I have taken, and the indorse- 
ment of many wise. Spirit-filled people of different de- 
nominations, all combine in deepening the assurance 



1 66 A He:ro o]? P'aith and Prayer. 

that my course has been of God and for the in- 
terests of His kingdom. I have a settled conviction 
that I have been true to the DiscipHne, rightly inter- 
preted, to the Church, and to God, whose I am and 
whom I serve ; to whom be glory and dominion for- 
ever ! 

"Conference Indorsement. — When I entered the evan- 
gelistic field, the Michigan Conference passed resolu- 
tions embracing the following: 'We believe the Holy 
Ghost has led him to this step, and, knowing the gifts, 
graces, and usefulness of Brother Knapp and his*wife, 
we do cordially commend them to the fellowship and 
co-operation of God's people everywhere, and to the 
blessings of God in their work.' The 'everywhere' in 
the Conference resolutions, it seems to me, chimes 
beautifully with the gospel 'everywhere,' which surely 
embraces the meetings of the Chesapeake Holiness 
Union at Bowens, Md. 

"Because the complainants in the Baltimore Confer- 
ence refused to extend to us the 'fellowship' and 'co- 
operation' to which we were commended, is that any 
reason why I should refuse to accept that of the Union, 
which did? 

"Wesleyan. — We stress the fact that our conducting 
the meeting was strictly Wesleyan. The founder of 
our Church declared that the 'world was his parish,' 
and welcomed a 'league offensive and defensive' with 
all true Christians. In response to a restrictive man- 
date from his bishop, he said: 'Wherever, therefore, 
I think I can do the most good, there I must stay so 
long as I think so. At present I think I can do the 
most good here ; therefore, here I stay. As to my 
preaching here, — a dispensation of the gospel is com- 
mitted to me, and woe to me if I preach not the gospel 



hi^K o^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 167 

wherever I am in the habitable world.' (Wesley's 
Works, Vol. VII, page 480.) 

''Stevens, in his History of Methodism, referring to 
the action of one of the early Conferences, says : 

" 'Unanimous agreement was pronounced desirable, 
but in speculative matter each, it was afhrmed, could 
only submit so far as his judgment should be convinced ; 
in every practical point, so far as would not wound 
his conscience. It was asked, "Can a Christian sub- 
mit further than this to any man, or number of men, 
on earth?" "It is," they answered, "undeniably plain 
that he can not, either to pope, council, bishop, or con- 
vocation." And this is that grand principle of every 
man's right to private judgment in opposition to im- 
plicit faith in man, on which Calvin, Luther, Melanch- 
thon, and all the ancient reformers, at home and abroad, 
proceeded. Every man must think for himself, since 
every man must give an account for himself to God.' 
(Vol. I, page 319.) 

" 'You profess,' continue these Minutes, 'to obey 
both the rules and governors of the Church, yet in 
many instances you do not obey them. How is this 
consistent? It is entirely consistent. We act at all 
times on one plain, uniform principle. We will obey 
the rules and governors of the Church whenever we 
can consistently with our duty to God. Whenever we 
can not, we quietly obey God rather than man.' (Vol. 
I, page 322.) 

''Scriptural. — I take my stand in this matter on the 
Word of God. Its commandments and examples both 
sustain me in it. The gospel commission recognizes 
no such restrictions as the complainants seek to attach 
to it. Jesus commanded His disciples to 'go into all 
the world,' and proclaim His gospel 'to every creature)' 



i68 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

and 'they went evcryzvhere preaching the Word.' When 
the pastor at Bethel complained to the king against 
the evangehst Amos, and it was commanded that he 
should 'preach no more at Bethel' (Amos vii, 10-17), 
Amos, Divinely inspired, remained loyal to his Divine 
convictions and commission, and, instead of recalling 
his message, as he was commanded, he repeated it, and 
there is no record of any Conference ever giving a 
hearing to Amaziah's complaint. In every age, God's 
Daniels and Shadrachs have honored the higher law 
whenever humanisms have conflicted with it, and have 
been honored by Him and His Church for so doing. 

"When the offlcials of the Church attempted to cur- 
tail the Pentecostal ministrations of John and Peter, 
they said : 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to 
hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye : for 
we can not but speak the things which we saw and 
heard. And they, when they had further threatened 
them, let them go, finding nothing how they might 
punish them.' (Acts iv, 19-21.) A precedent worthy 
of the study of opposers of similar meetings to-day. 
True Methodists do not spell Discipline in large type 
and Bible in nonpareil. Only Pharisees exalt the tra- 
ditions of the elders above the Word of God. 

"I call attention to these facts, not for self-vindica- 
tion — for I would be willing to let the whole matter 
drop in a moment, so far as my own personal inter- 
ests are concerned — but I do it in the interest of the 
truth which I feel God would have vindicated, and be- 
lieve there is a providence in His permitting things 
to take the shape they have through which He is work- 
ing out His own plans. Should I neglect to do this, • 
I would be a party to the false conclusions to which 



LiFK OF Rkv. M. W. KxXapp. 169 

the statements of complainants have led. Let every 
minister w^ho has a voice in this matter prayerfully pon- 
der the following questions, and then do as Jesus w^ould : 

"Are ministers to be censured because of divisions 
which come from their preaching against sin and 
w^orldliness and formality? 

''Is a Pentecostal revival an 'injury' to the Church 
and to preachers? 

"Is a great work of God to be thus condemned by 
biased men, who were not present at a single service? 

"Is their testimony to be weighed against that of 
competent 'witnesses who were present at every serv- 
ice, and testify to the contrary? 

"In order to please the caprice of such witnesses, 
must the principles of the kingdom of God be out- 
raged, and multitudes who are looking to Methodism 
for a home where they can w^orship God according to 
the dictates of their consciences, hear the rattle of the 
chains of popish intolerance? 

"Shall the Church be forced to crucify the spirit of 
her founder and of her history to offer incense to the 
letter of human law misapplied? 

"Are her Restrictive Rules, designed to protect the 
Church from error, to be transformed into guillotines 
to behead men for spreading her great central truth? 

"Is it consistent for the Church to instruct her sons 
that their mission is to 'spread Scriptural holiness,' and 
then threaten them for doing so? 

"Shall ministers who are not leading people into the 
experience of entire sanctification themselves be en- 
couraged in hindering those who do? 

"Shall people w^ho can not secure the co-operation 
of their pastors for the salvation and sanctification of 



i^o A Hi:ro of Faith and Praykr. 

their children and neighbors be forbidden to seek the 
same through other accredited and God-honored 
agencies ? 

''Does an tmnamed, invisible boundary-line trans- 
form a Pentecostal revival into an 'offense' and 'in- 
jury?' 

"Have our Holiness Union meetings no rights that 
are to be respected? Are their promoters to be de- 
clared in bondage to any pastor who may oppose 
them? 

"Shall Alethodism punish men for emulating the 
spirit of its founder when he said, 'Woe to me if I 
preach not the gospel wherever I am in the habitable 
world?" 

"Shall we condemn popery in Rome and condone 
it at home? 

"If a member of this Conference is to be published 
'clearly guilty' on the floor of the Conference, and 
in its reports, without a trial, then who is safe ? 

"Can the Michigan Conference afford to allow her 
last year's action to- stain the pages of her journals, 
and do nothing to make the wrong right? 

"I make these statements in the interest of the truth 
as I expect to meet them at the judgment, and pray 
that they may be received in the spirit in which they are 
given. When Peter went up to the Apostolic Confer- 
ence, and there met the objectors to his preaching to 
the Gentiles with the statement of his experience and 
God's leadings in the matter, 'they held their peace and 
glorified God.' I am sure that the God of Peter sent 
me to conduct the Holiness Union meetings at 
Bowens, and if the Michigan Conference shall see 
its way clear to follow the primitive precedent, I will 
rejoice in such a triumph of the truth. If it sees dif- 



Lii^'K OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. lyi 

ferently, I shall count it among the 'all things that 
work together for good' to the people of God, and re- 
joice that I am permitted to test the blessedness of the 
Scripture which declares : 'For this is acceptable, if 
for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, 
suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when 
ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? 
But if, when ye do well and suffer for it ye shall take 
it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For here- 
unto were ye called : because Christ also suffered for 
you, leaving you an example that ye should follow His 
steps ; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
mouth ; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again ; 
when He suffered, threatened not ; but committed Him- 
self to Him that judgeth righteously." (i Peter ii, 

19-230 

"A committee was appointed to investigate the case 
and report to the Conference. This committee, after 
careful and prayerful deliberation, reported as follows : 

'' 'The committee appointed to consider the case 
of Rev. M. W. Knapp report that, after hearing Brother 
Knapp's statement of the case, and examining all the 
facts that were accessible to us, it is our judgment 
that there is no cause for action ; and we recommend 
that his character be passed and his relation be 
continued.' 

"This report was enthusiastically adopted, and its 
adoption indorsed by a vigorous repetition of clapping 
of hands. 

"This reverses the decision of last year, and vin- 
dicates our course in the matter. I have known from 
the beginning that I was in the right, and have had no 
doubt but that God would fully vindicate the matter in 
His own way, which is always best. I, from the be- 



172 



A Hkro of P'aith and Prayer. 



ginning, believed that the Alichigan Conference would 
do it when all the facts could be placed before it and 
an opportunity given to speak in the light of these 
facts. I believe it would have been done last year 
if this condition had been met. I was at the Con- 
ference last year, and gave the facts to a preliminary 
committee whom the Cabinet appointed to confer with 
me in the matter before I left the seat of the Confer- 
ence; but the final Investigating Committee was ap- 
pointed after I left, and my statements never reached 
them or the Conference. This, and the fact that I left 
the Conference before the case came up, had much 
to do with last year's mistaken decision, which lies 
buried beneath this avalanche from above, which now 
destroys it. 

"I rejoice in the triumph of truth and in this new 
fulfillment of the promise which declares : 'Com- 
mit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He 
shall bring it to pass, and He shall bring forth thy 
righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the 
noonday." (Ps. xxxvii, 5, 6.) 

"The writer received many personal congratulations 
from members of the Conference over its righteous 
decision. 

*'A blessed manifestation of the Holy Spirit flooded 
my own soul, and broke up the fountains of my being, 
so that I could hardly speak my gratitude that God 
had so wonderfully and overwhelmingly vindicated the 
truth and given the victory. 

''A Paragraph Misapplied. 

"Paragraph 223 of the ^Methodist Episcopal Disci- 
pline reads as follows : 

" 'Any traveling or local preacher who shall hold 



Lit^K OF Rev. M. W. Knapp 



173 



religious service within the bounds of any mission, 
circuit, or station, when requested by the preacher in 
charge not to hold such services, shall be deemed 
guilty of imprudent conduct, and shall, after the ad- 
monitions ordered in paragraphs 224, 240, if he do 
not refrain from such conduct, be liable to charges and 
investigation or trial under the provisions of the Disci- 
pline relating to these respective classes of preachers. 
A local preacher ofifending against this provision may 
be tried in the charge where the offense was com- 
mitted.' 

'*A similar paragraph has been inserted in the Dis- 
cipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This 
paragraph, when used to protect the Church from er- 
ror, stop the mouths of irresponsible and unsafe per- 
sons, is all right ; but when prostituted to suppress the 
spread of Scriptural holiness, it is contrary to the spirit 
of the Discipline and of Methodism and of the king- 
dom of heaven. 

''How should the paragraph be treated? It should 
be, of course, loyally respected and obeyed in all in- 
stances where it does not conflict with a higher law 
and the freedom of the conscience in carrying out the 
Savior's great commission to preach the gospel to 
every creature. In such instances no attention should 
be paid to it. The individual should, like Daniel, when 
forbidden to pray, and the apostles, when forbidden 
to preach, 'obey God rather than men,' candidly state 
his position, and trust Qod to deliver from the threat- 
ened penalty, or, if otherwise, accept of it as a part of 
the providential persecution over which Christ com- 
mands to rejoice and be exceedingly glad, 'on ac- 
count of the great reward in the kingdom of heaven,' 
and the honor of thus advertising, to all the world, 



174 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 



membership in the ranks of heroic martyrs and proph- 
ets, who, rather than compromise, sealed their convic- 
tions with their blood. 

''i. This paragraph is simply a human restriction, 
with no Scriptural foundation, and ranks no higher as 
a Church law than the 'tradition' of the elders compared 
with the Word of God. 

''2. No Church has any Scriptural right to make 
and enforce laws that infringe liberty of conscience in 
things not sinful. To do so is popery. 

''3. Xo human restriction in any Church is binding 
where its application conflicts with the great object for 
which the Church is instituted, as this does when used 
to hinder the 'spread of holiness.' 

"4. Xor where it conflicts with the Word of God, 
as this does, when used to prohibit preaching the pure 
gospel and leading people into the experiences of sal- 
vation. 

"An Ol-d Testament Revivalist. 

" 'Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jero- 
boam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired 
against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the 
land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos 
saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall 
surely be led away captive out of his land. Also Ama- 
ziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go flee thee away 
into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and proph- 
esy there ; but prophesy not again any more at Bethel ; 
for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house. 
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no 
prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an 
herdman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees ; and the 
Lord took me from following the flock, and the IvOrd 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



175 



said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. 
Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord : Thou 
sayest. Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy 
word against the house of Isaac ; therefore, thus saith 
the Lord : Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and 
thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and 
thy land shall be divided by line ; and thou thyself shalt 
die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be 
led away captive out of his land.' (Amos vii, 10-17.) 

''The above incident illustrates the following truths : 

^'Fidelity to God may awaken ecclesiastical slander 
and opposition. 

''True evangelists preach as fearlessly to bishops 
and kings as to the common people. 

"A backslidden people are not 'able to bear all the 
words' of the Divine message. 

"Worldly officials conspire to get rid of holy preach- 
ers, and their unscriptural strictures conflict with the 
Divine commandments. 

"Amos, Divinely inspired, trampled unrighteous 
ecclesiastical requirements beneath his feet, preached 
where God told him to, and, instead of recalling his 
message, when so commanded, repeated and empha- 
sized it. 

"Ecclesiastical Usurpation. 

" 'And, as they spoke unto the people, the priests 
and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came 
upon them, being sore troubled because they taught 
the people.' (Acts iv, i.) 

"One of the greatest hindrances to spirituality is un- 
sanctified ecclesiasticism. The priests and captain of 
the temple, in harmony with God and His plan of sav- 
ing the world, like John Wesley and his compeers, are 



176 A He:ro 01^ Faith and Praykr. 

^^^ngs, indeed, to the gospel; but when they degener- 
ate into mere bosses, and seek to lord it over God's 
heritage, they are worse than dead weights. That such 
men exist to-day is clear to all with open eyes. That 
it is the duty of all true ministers to resist their en- 
croachments is clear from many commands and exam- 
ples of the Word of God, notwithstanding the *sore 
trouble' which it causes them. 

"The following are some of the marks by which 
they may be known : 

"i. They get no one saved or sanctified. 

*'2. They profess to be perfectly orthodox. 

''3. They are lax in the administration of discipline, 
against worldliness, sin, and members of means. 

"4. They usually are members of worldly frater- 
nities. 

''5. They do not preach the eradication of carnality 
and press believers to 'expect it by faith and now.' 

"6. They avoid pressing people to decision, and 
either ignore the 'mourner's-bench,' or abuse it. 

"7. They sometimes profess holiness, but oppose its 
applications, favoring church fandangoes, godless choirs, 
alliance of believers with worldly lodges and like un- 
christian manifestations, and even censure and per- 
secute true holiness people who have the courage to 
protest. 

"8. They are undismayed at the sins of rich world- 
lings, but frantic over the Pentecostal manifestations 
of Spirit-filled people. 

"9. They not only neglect to lead people into the 
experiences of holiness, but, like the Pharisees of old, 
forbid those that would. They are 'sore troubled' when 
Holy Ghost people are rejoicing over great revivais. 
They grieve over the antics of a few fanatics, instead 
of over the feasting, fun, and formality in the Church. 



Lii'K oi^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 177 

"They grieve over meetings and testimonies which 
spread real, heaven-born Bible holiness, especially if out- 
side of their control. 

"They exalt culture, and deride entire sanctification 
as a definite work subsequent to conversion eradicat- 
ing carnality. 

"They spell Discipline in big capitals and Bible in 
nonpareil. 

"Jesus resisted them, rebuked them, and warned 
them. His true ministers follow in His steps. 

"Popery in Protestantism. 

"One of the greatest hindrances to revivals of Pen- 
tecostal power is popery in Protestanitsm. Popery in 
Rome or the United States, Catholicism or Protestant- 
ism, is a unit. The following are some of its works : 

"It seeks to substitute loyalty to man or men for 
loyalty to Christ. 

"It exalts humanisms above the Word of God. 

"It seeks to bind and gag the individual conscience. 

"It threatens and, if in its power, executes penalties 
on those who resist its usurpations. 

"It has the support of men who magnify Church- 
anity above Christianity, which emancipates its subjects 
from all such bondage. 

"In Protestantism it is now finding expression: 

"In pastors forbidding their members to hold meet- 
ings in their own homes. 

"By threatening them for attending holiness meet- 
ings. 

"By the trial and expulsion of members for witness- 
ing to full salvation. 

"By officials oppressing members who dare to 
preach, live, and confess Holy Ghost religion. 

"By endeavoring to dictate the minister's message. 



1^8 A Hkro of Faith and Praye:r. 

*'How should it be treated? 

'Tray for those who thus try to ''lord it" over God's 
heritage. Resist their encroachments the same as you 
would any other usurpation of the enemy. It is no 
reason we should coddle the devil when he gets behind 
a white necktie and clerical coat. Use their restric- 
tions as a ladder on which to climb up higher and pick 
still more luscious fruit in the orchards of full salvation. 
If they learn to let you alone, that will be a victory. If 
they cut your head of¥, God will give you a better one in 
such a way that all can see that their folly helps instead 
of harms His saints, which will be still greater victory. 
Whom the Son 'makes free is free indeed,' and this free- 
dom no believer can afiford to forfeit. Many revivals 
and Pentecostal camp-meetings have doubtless been 
nipped in the bud because of this damnable domination. 

"The time has come when ministers and laity should 
unitedly assert their gospel liberty and use such usurpa- 
tion as a grindstone on which to whet their loyalty to 
Christ and His Word, as they press the battle against 
sin. 

"Human Re:strictions. 

"Perfect love places its possessor where he will be 
perfectly loyal to the will of God in everything. As 
the Scripture teaches, he will be obedient to all regula- 
tions of Church and State which do not conflict with 
supreme loyalty to God. 

"What course should a minister take when provi- 
dential openings, the entreaties of souls that are fam- 
ishing for the bread of life, the command of the 
Master to 'go preach the gospel,' all combine to 
indicate that God is calling to a certain field, while at 
the same time a man-made restriction forbids it ? 



Lii^E o^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 179 

''The following principle must always govern at such 
a point, namely : The lesser requirement must always 
yield to the greater, the human to the Divine. In every 
age, God's Daniels and Shadrachs must break the lesser 
law when the higher principle demands, even though 
lions' dens and fiery furnaces may test their faith. His 
Johns and Peters must 'obey God rather than men' when 
the hand and ears of ecclesiastical tribunals and restric- 
tions persist in defying the limited express-train of God's 
demands. 

"Jesus declared that His disciples were pure, though 
they plucked the ears of corn, contrary to the Dis- 
cipline of the Church, and David was blameless, though 
he broke the rule that made it a crime for any but 
priests to eat the bread of which he partook. 

''The above Bible precedents, like a mighty Niagara, 
thunder out God's truth upon this great question. 

"John Wesley and the Bishop oe Bristoe. 

"Bishop : 'Well, sir, since you ask my advice, I 
will give it to you very freely. You have no business 
here. You are not commissioned to preach in this 
diocese; therefore I advise you to go home.' 

"Wesley: 'My lord, my business on earth is to do 
what good I can. Wlierever, therefore, I think I can 
do the most good, there I must stay so long as I think 
so. At present I think I can do most good here ; 
therefore, here I stay. As to my preaching here, a 
dispensation of the gospel is committed to me, and 
woe unto me if I preach not the gospel wherever 
I am in the habitable world. Your lordship knows, 
being ordained a priest of the Church universal, and 
being ordained a Fellow of the college, I was not 
limited to any particular cure, but have an interme- 



l8o A Hkro 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

diate commission to preach the Word of God in any 
part of the Church of England. I do not, therefore, 
conceive that, in preaching here, by this commission, 
I break any human law. When I am convinced I do, 
it v^ill be time to ask, Shall I obey God or man? But 
if I should be convinced in the meanwhile that I could 
advance the glory of God and the salvation of souls 
in any other place more than in Bristol, in that hour, 
by God's help, I will go hence ; which till then I may 
not do.' (Wesley's Works, Vol. VII, page 480.)" 

Brother Knapp won his fight with the Maryland op- 
posers of his camp-meeting before his Michigan Con- 
ference. But even victors receive wounds ; and wounds 
are sore. They lead to grave reflections, and our "Hero 
of Faith and Prayer" had them. 

What a spectacle that a man of Knapp's spotless 
purity of life and Holy-Spirit power in Christian service, 
should be on trial two successive years before his Con- 
ference, and be once condemned — for what? Why, for 
responding to the call of some hungry souls, and preach- 
ing them the gospel at a camp-meeting some miles from 
a Methodist church two summers, at which meetings 
more than five hundred people were saved or sanctified ! 

I wonder if the great Methodist Church realizes how 
this looks to thoughtful outsiders? A hungry, unfed 
people, longing for holiness and God, send for some 
recognized leader of the Lord's hosts to teach them, at 
a camp-meeting in a grove, the deep things of God. 
He arrives on the ground, and the Methodist pastor. 
Rev. Pusillanimous Littlemind, meets the evangelist and 
pompously informs him, "This camp-ground is in my 
parish, which is ten miles square. It it bounded on the 
north by Devil's Gulch; on the east by Murderer's 
Bend ; on the south by Goose Creek ; and on the west 



Life: of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 



i8i 



by Hell-neck Run. The parish of Rev. Cold-heart 
Tobacco-squirt joins mine on the north ; the parish of 
Rev. Dead Conscience Lodgejoiner touches mine on the 
east ; Rev. Worldly-mind Moneylove joins me on the 
south ; and Rev. Ambitious Carnality is my neighbor 
on the west. Rev. Unscrupulous Wirepuller, D. D., is 
our presiding elder. We are all loyal to our beloved 
Methodist Church. We own every creek and every 
spring and every grove in this country for thirty miles. 
We give you and all other holiness tramps written no- 
tice now to get out of our territory within twenty-four 
hours, or. we will bring you to trial, and put you out of 
the ministry." 

And the disgusting spectacle of this contemptible 
tyranny, this petty popery, is going on in this blessed 
era of grace and Christian liberty, in the honored name 
of the Methodist Church, that was raised up to spread 
holiness! I know, from somewhat extended observa- 
tion in more than thirty States, that this despicable 
persecution is driving some of her best sons and daugh- 
ters out of the Methodist communion, and is keeping 
some of the strongest men from coming into it. It is 
deterring the younger ministry from seeking the deepest 
spiritual experiences for fear of persecution, and is ar- 
raying them against the most sacred doctrines she ever 
taught. It is chilling the ardor of the membership for. 
holiness, and driving the Holy Spirit from the Churches, 
leaving them struck with the paralysis of spiritual death. 
How long will the Conferences and ecclesiastical dig- 
nitaries of this blessed Church stand by and witness in 
silence, and even be parties to, this infamy that is blister- 
ing the face of its fair fame? May God graciously re- 
store this Church to its first love of holiness, and spare 
it from further shame ! 



1 82 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

However others may be scared by threats and run 
from persecution, Brother Knapp would not. He had 
the stuff in him that heroes are made of. He told me 
he would rather have gone to the stake than to have 
missed holding those Maryland camp-meetings. He 
was one of those few heroic souls who ''count not their 
own lives dear unto them for Christ's sake/' 



CHAPTER XIII. 
A GROWING POWER. 

"Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, 
whetiier he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot, radiating his 
dark influence outward to the very circumference of society ; or he may be 
may be a blessing, spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the 
world ; but a. blank he can not be. There are no moral blanks; there are 
no neutral characters. We are either the sower that sows and corrupts, or 
the'light that splendidly illuminates and the salt that silently operates ; but 
being dead or alive, every man speaks." — Dr. T. Chalmers. 

If this is true of all men and ordinary men, how 
blessedly true it must be in the case^ of a man like 
Brother Knapp ! His life was ''the light that splendidly 
illuminates," ''the salt that silently operates," a "spread- 
ing benediction" which, Hke the rays of the morning, 
goes out through all the earth. 

January, 1899, saw the Revivalist, which Brother 
Knapp had nursed in prayer so long, suddenly grow into 
a weekly. God kindly provided for this change from a 
monthly to a weekly by sending him three thousand 
new subscribers, so that he had the money all in hand 
to make the change. From that date until the present 
the growth of that paper in influence and circulation 
has been phenomenal in religious journalism. 

A little before that date this mind, so marvelously 
fertile in expedients, planned a colportage library of 
books, to be not over one hundred pages in size, that 
might be bound in paper and sold for ten cents. He 
had two objects in view: First, to spread holiness; 

183 



184 A Hkro o^ Faith and Praykr. 

second, to undersell and displace the colportage books 
of a house in another city, that were not sound in their 
teachings about sanctification. Hundreds of thousands 
of these books have been sold, and they are going to 
every country in the English-speaking w^orld. One of 
mine, "Pentecostal Light," has been translated into the 
Swedish language. It was a bold venture and a mag- 
nificent success. He also planned a monthly of the 
same size and price. This, too, was a great success, 
of which he wrote as follows : 

"Men must have stimulants ; hence the slaves on 
every hand to tea and coffee and strong drinks. God 
provides a stimulant from His own celestial table, even 
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and with this 
Spirit commands us to be filled. Those who heed this 
command, and dail}^ drink this wine, become strong to 
'do exploits.' Forgetting to do so, they fail and fall. 
Hence the thought came. Divinely given, of a book of 
daily Bible-readings, with texts and apt comments by 
wise soul-winners, for every day in the year. God in- 
clined evangelists of eminence to respond to our invita- 
tion and help make such a book, and 'Pentecostal Wine 
from Bible Grapes' gushed from the press to stimulate 
and invigorate thousands of people who have drunk, 
and who yet may. 

''For years we had felt there must be a revolution 
in the prices of holiness literature, and that there should 
be provided safe, aggressive books and booklets that 
would sell so cheap that all might buy and read. 'Pen- 
tecostal Wine' became the first issue of such a publica- 
tion, called 'Pentecostal Holiness Library,' the circula- 
tion of which is extending over all the world, and prom- 
ises to be a mighty factor in the girdHng of this globe 
with salvation." 



Li^K OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 185 

Twelve thousand copies of "Pentecostal Wine" have 
been published. It is the best year-book of daily read- 
ings on sanctification on the market, written by twelve 
evangelists, each one writing for a month, and the price 
is only twenty cents. 

Two years afterwards he employed eleven of us to 
join with himself, as before, in producing another beauti- 
ful year-book of daily readings on the subject "Jesus 
Only." Four thousand of this book have been pub- 
lished, and it will have a fine career. Brother Knapp 
seemed to hold God to the promise, "Whatsoever he 
doeth shall' prosper.'^ Everything that he touched, 
whether book, or paper, or pamphlet, or mission, or 
school, or camp-meeting, seemed to have the seal of 
God upon it, and was a success. Blessed man ! be- 
loved child of God ! he was belting the world with the 
knowledge of full salvation and the glory of his Savior. 

In the last chapter I narrated the acount of the 
arraignment of Knapp before his Michigan Conference 
for holding two holiness camp-meetings in Maryland. 
It probably shocked him and grieved him. It also 
doubtless led to a critical study of the inside life of his 
own Church, as he might never have studied it but 
for that experience. His investigation led him to write 
an editorial, the like of which for force and moral 
pungency has seldom been written by any son of Wesley. 
It was so remarkable and startling and fearless that we 
repeat it entire : 

"Rkvival Poison in the: Me:thodist Pan. 

"The Church of Christ is a revival Church. Meth- 
odism was born in a revival, and has been a revival 
Church. The decadence in the quality, and especially 
in the quantity, of members is awakening her to re- 



l86 A He:ro oi^ Faith and Prayi:r. 

flection. Well it may. A denomination that forfeits 
a revival spirit has no right to the name Church. It 
must repent and be converted and receive its Pentecost, 
or give way to other movements. The Western Chris- 
tian Advocate, in its issue of July 19, 1893, uttered a 
needed and ringing warning against the poisons that 
were then sapping the life of the Church, and which have 
spread with fearful rapidity since. It said : 

" 'The great trouble with us to-day is, that the rescue 
of imperiled souls is our last and least consideration. 
Many of our congregations are conducted on the basis 
of social clubs. They are made centers of social in- 
fluence. Membership is sought in order to advance 
one's prospects in society, business, or politics. Preach- 
ers are called who know how to 

** Smooth down the rugged text to ears poUte, 
And snugly keep damnation out of sight. ' ' 

" 'The Sunday services are made the occasion of dis- 
playing the elegancies of apparel in the latest fashions. 
Even the little ones are tricked out as though they were 
the acolytes of pride. If the ''Rules" are read, it is to 
comply with the letter of a law whose spirit has long 
since fled. Their class-books are filled with names of 
unconverted men and women. Offlcial members may 
be found in box, dress-circle, and parquet of opera and 
theater. Communicants take in the races, and give and 
attend card-parties and dances. The distinction be- 
tween inside and outside is so obscure that men smile 
when asked to unite with the Church, and sometimes 
tell us that they find the best men outside. 

" 'When we go to the masses, it is too often with 
such ostentatious condescension that self-respect drives 
them from us. And yet we have so spread out, under 



LiFK OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 187 

the influence of the rich and ungodly, that they are a 
necessity to us. The enforcement of the unmistakable 
letter of the Discipline for a single year would cut our 
membership in half, bankrupt our Missionary Society, 
close our fashionable churches, paralyze our con- 
nectional interests, and leave our pastors and bishops 
unpaid and in distress. But the fact remains that one 
of two things must happen, — the Discipline must purge 
the Church, or God's Holy Spirit will seek other or- 
ganized agencies. The ax is laid at the root of the 
tree. The call is to repentance. God's work must be 
done. If we are in the way He will remove us. Our 
spirit needs to be 

* ' The arms of love that compass me, 
Would all mankind embrace :" 

and our aim to 

" Tell to sinners round 
What a dear Savior we have found ; 
To point to his redeeming blood. 
And cry, Behold the way to God !" 

" Xet each reader begin with himself,, and rest not 
until he realizes that the kingdom is set up within him. 
We have need to be in greater haste to flee for refuge 
than had the poor firemen in Chicago. He that hath 
ears to hear let him hear.' 

"Had this faithful trumpet-blast been heeded, then 
these would have been days of joy and victory instead 
of mourning and funerals. If the poison that then was, 
and now is, destroying a revival spirit, and transforming 
the Church into a ghastly corpse, is eliminated, it must 
be seen, confessed, and put away. It is the duty of every 
loyal Christian, and especially of every Methodist, to 
let the rising generation know that such a condition of 



1 88 A Hkro of Faith and Praye:r. 

things as now largely exists is neither true Methodism 
nor true Christianity, but an awful burlesque on both. 
Under the gospel meal of the mighty doctrines of pure, 
primitive Christianity, Satan has cunningly placed these 
fatal revival poisons : 

*'The Poison of Obtaining Members, Ministers, and 
Money under False Pretenses. — Methodism rightly de- 
clares in her Discipline that 'The visible Church of Christ 
is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure 
Word of God is preached,' and that her object it *to 
spread Scriptural holiness over these lands/ Notwith- 
standing these promises and professions in many places, 
her societies consist largely of unregenerated people, and 
in the place of the preaching of the 'pure Word of God' 
lectures, essays, and sermonettes have taken its place, 
and the second work of the sanctifying baptism with 
the Holy Spirit, which is the light and fire and power 
of the Church of God, is elminated, and sometimes con- 
trary teaching is put in its place. In many places her 
societies, instead of seeking to save men and to build 
them up in holiness, are transformed into places of plays, 
fairs, festivals, oyster suppers, concerts, lectures, and 
disgraceful fandangoes. Professing to be the virtuous, 
loyal bride of Christ, she thus deceives by this spiritual 
harlotry, and must confess and repent in sackcloth and 
ashes, or she can not be forgiven. Many have given 
time and money to build her churches, with the under- 
standing that they were to be used only for the great 
object for which Methodism was raised up. To have 
these buildings used for purposes above named, and 
locked against holiness meetings, — this is dishonesty as 
rank as a robber, and which God will not tolerate. 
Ministers and members have united with her because 
of her profession of being a holiness Church, and then 



Life of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. i8q 

been persecuted by her for preaching, professing, and 
believing hoHness. 

''The Poison of Hypocrisy. — Many of our ministers, 
after declaring that they 'expect to be made perfect in 
love' in this life, and are 'groaning so to be,' have op- 
posed the second work of grace, which is so mightily 
magnified in the doctrines, biographies, and the hymnol- 
ogies of the Church. Others have promised before God 
and man to teach and exemplify the doctrines of the 
Church and to 'drive away all false and erroneous' 
teachings, and then criminally neglected the doctrine 
of entire sanctification as clearly held by the Church 
and declared in the Word of God, and, instead of driv- 
ing away its enemies, have aided them, and have not 
been called to account for this betrayal of their trust. 
A denomintion that poses as a conservator of a great 
doctrine like this, and then allows its ministers to preach 
and write and teach contrary to the position that it 
takes, is playing hypocrisy, which it must repent of 
or suffer the consequences. God will not co-operate 
with it in such an act, and it is not a marvel that its 
membership becomes a pigmy in quality, and begins to 
fade away. 

"The Poison of Worldliness. — Multitudes of its 
members and ministers, after publicly entering into a 
most solemn covenant to 'forsake the devil and all his 
works, the vain pomp and glory of this world, so as 
not to follow or be led by them,' unite with worldly 
fraternities, and lavish their time and money at the 
shrines of other gods than those of Israel. Resisting 
the holiness Elijahs, even as their fathers did in the 
days of Ahab, now, as then, God is angry with them, 
and upon their skirts is the blood of murdered millions 
of souls that might have been won. 



190 



A Hero of Faith axd Praykr. 



"Multitudes of members, breaking this vow, attend 
theaters, card-parties, dances, circuses, and similar 
worldly places, thus trampling their solemn covenant 
beneath their feet, grieving the Spirit of God, and, in- 
stead of working to save their families and others, thus 
deliberately unite with the world, the flesh, and the devil 
in their ruin. He that loves the world is declared to be 
an enemy of God, and God will not co-operate with any 
Church, as such, which thus knowingly harbors such 
enemies within its fold. 

"The Poison of CompHcity with the Tobacco Evil. — 
Next to whisky, tobacco is one of the most successful 
agents that Satan is using to rob and degenerate the 
race; yet multitudes of members are slaves to this black 
vice of the bar-room and the saloons, and millions of 
dollars are worse than wasted upon the shrine of this 
dirty demon, largely unrebuked by jMethodist papers and 
Methodist pulpits. 

"The Poison of Broken Vows. — Members and min- 
isters have solemnly promised to refrain from 'un- 
charitable or unprofitable conversation ;' from the 'put- 
ting on of gold and costly apparel;' from 'taking such 
diversions as can not be used in the name of the Lord 
Jesus ;' from the 'singing those songs, or reading those 
books which do not tend to the knowledge or love of 
God;' from 'softness and needless self-indulgence;' from 
'laying up treasures upon earth,' and from 'borrowing 
without a probability of paying.^ Also to 'do good ; by 
being in every kind merciful after their power ; as they 
have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, 
and, as far as possible, to all men ; to their bodies of 
the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the 
hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping 
them that are sick or in prison ; to their souls, by in- 



Lii^K OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 191 

structing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any inter- 
course with ;' 'to run with patience the race that is set 
before them, denying themselves and taking up their 
cross daily ; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ ; 
to be as the filth and ofifscouring of the world ; and look- 
ing that men should say all manner of evil of them 
falsely, for the Lord's sake.' 

''They have also promised to maintain 'family and 
private prayer, searching the Scripture, fasting or ab- 
stinence.' On reception into the Church these solemn 
vows are cheerfully taken as pledges of good faith and 
earnestness ; but on every hand we find them disre- 
garded even by people who are honored by positions 
in the Church. In allowing this state of things, the 
Church itself becomes a party to the crime, and God 
can no more walk with her until she repents than He 
could save a liar or a robber without repentance. In- 
dividuals and local Churches that are true may be blest ; 
but the Church, as a whole, must repent or suffer the 
consequences. 

"The Poison of Seduction. — In many instances, on 
the plea of being a branch of the New Testament 
Church, she induces people to unite with her, and then, 
in many of her societies, she commits them to fairs, fes- 
tivals, ungodly choirs, union with ungodly and uncon- 
verted members, suppression of holiness testimonies, 
and faithlessness in rebuking sin and kindred unscrip- 
tural things, the participation in which, or refusal to 
rebuke, will grieve the Spirit and cause backsliding. 
Thus, under the sheepskin of sanctity, she induces them 
to barter their experiences as really as if they had united 
with the theater or the social club. 

"This seduction is the more successful when such 
a society temporarily tolerates a spiritual preacher, 



192 



A Hkro o:^ Faith and Prayi^r. 



using him as a decoy-duck to fill its folds with folks 
whose spirituality it will ruin. We have looked in vain 
for the last twenty years to see great metropolitan 
Churches transformed into those of the New Testament 
type, that permanently and increasingly glow with Pen- 
tecostal light and fire and power. Many of them have 
been characterized by great Church-joining meetings, 
and some by big collections, and there has been oc- 
casionally a revival, usually with the aid of an evangel- 
ist ; but, as a rule, its converts have speedily been starved 
or frozen to death, and results charged to the evangelist. 
Occasionally the prayers and ministry of a holy man in 
such places have prevailed with God in a temporary 
awakening; but, as a rule, such men have soon been 
removed and replaced by others who please the dis- 
gruntled goats, instead of feeding the famishing sheep. 
To seduce souls into uniting with such apostate so- 
cieties, under the pretense that they are Christian 
Churches to help toward heaven and holy living, is like 
that of the procuress who lures her victims into the 
chambers of her whose steps take hold on hell. We 
rejoice that there is evidence of many ministers and 
societies in Methodism that have not thus fallen ; but 
the existence and allowance of those that have is a 
crime that makes her guilty of the blood of souls, and 
which must be confessed and abandoned. 

"The Poison of Complicity with the Liquor-traffic. — 
While her Conference resolutions are good, yet multi- 
tudes of her ministers and members refuse to vote for 
prohibition, and unite with the devil and the saloon at 
the polls, — a crime as black as the hell from which it 
comes, and which demands confession and repentance 
just as deep as that of the man that keeps the saloon, 
or of the woman who runs the harlot house. Some of 



Lii^e: or^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



193 



its bishops have indorsed the administration of a Meth- 
odist President, who is black with the soot of this 
infamy. 

"The warning note echoed by C. G. Finney has been 
demonstrated by Methodist preachers at awful cost to 
the Church and souls. In his 'Revival Lectures,' page 
2^2, he says : 

" 'Resistance to the temperance reformation will put 
a stop to revivals in a Church. The time has come that 
it can no longer be innocent in a Church to stand aloof 
from this glorious reformation. The time was when 
this could be done ignorantly. The time has been when 
ministers and Christians could enjoy revivals, notwith- 
etanding ardent spirits were used among them. But 
since light has been thrown upon the subject, and it 
has been found that the use is only injurious, no Church 
member or minister can be innocent and stand neutral 
in the cause. They must speak out and take sides. And 
if they do not take ground on one side, their influence 
is on the other. Show me a minister that has taken 
ground against the temperance reformation who has had 
a revival. Show me one who now stands aloof from it 
who has a revival. Show me one who now temporizes 
upon this point, who does not come out and take a 
stand in favor of temperance, who has a revival. It 
did not use to be so. But now the subject has come 
up, and has been discussed, and is understood, no man 
can shut his eyes upon the truth. The man's hands are 
red with blood who stands aloof from the temperance 
cause. And can he have a revival? God can no more 
own and bless a Church that by its silence or its voice 
encourages the liquor-trafHc than Satan himself. Any 
Church that refuses to wash her hands of this infamy 
is doubly doomed.' 
13 



1Q4 A He:ro 01^ Faith and Prayi^r. 

''Carnal-culture Poison. — Another factor in destroy- 
ing a revival spirit in the Church is the poison of sub- 
stituting a baptism of education for the baptism v^ith 
the Holy Ghost. The infallible Head of the Church left 
on record a standing order for all His ministers to tarry 
at some Jerusalem until they should receive their Pen- 
tecostal diploma. He neither commanded nor inti- 
mated the need of His disciples studying classics, or 
taking any course like that insisted upon by the cul- 
ture craze of the present day. The baptism and the 
gifts of the Holy Ghost were and are absolute require- 
ments, the possession of which equips for gospel work 
and gospel victory, compared to which the knowledge 
of the schools is like a fizzling firecracker compared to 
a battery of heavy artillery. The primitive Church is 
an illustrative object-lesson of this truth; for its un- 
schooled laborers accomplished more of the real work 
of the kingdom in a day than whole Conferences of 
modern knights of culture in a decade. Pure, primitive 
Methodism, swayed by the same principle, with her army 
of Spirit-baptized, Spirit-gifted ministers, accomplished 
similar things and merited the eulogy given by C. G. 
Finney, the great evangelical president of Oberlin Col- 
lege, who said of them, 'Many ministers are finding it 
out already that a Methodist preacher, without the ad- 
vantages of a liberal education, will draw a congregation 
around him which a Presbyterian minister with perhaps 
ten times as much learning can not equal, because he 
has not the earnest manner of the other, and does not 
pour out fire upon his hearers when he preaches ;' and 
who, when referring to the ministers of the Presbyterian 
Church, in which the revival spirit is almost, if not 
totally, killed by these poisons, said, 'Good men are 
laboring, and are willing to labor night and day, to as- 



Lii^i: o^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



195 



sist in educating young men for the ministry, to pro- 
mote revivals of religion ; and when they come out of 
the seminary some of them are as shy of all the meas- 
ures that God blesses as they are of popery itself.' Like 
the dead Churches which have preceded her, poor, 
poisoned, dying Methodism is insisting upon the pos- 
session of college training instead of the New Testa- 
ment requirement of the baptism which entirely sancti- 
fies and the ethics which are inseparable from it. While 
the former is mightily magnified, the latter has come 
to be held at a fearful discount. Colleges like those 
of Catholicism are endowed, while experiences such as 
characterized the primitive Church are elided and de- 
rided by leading ministers and their 'High Church' fol- 
lowers, and the whole Church sanctions the outrage by 
keeping them in places of high trust and power. This 
is contumacy toward the King and kingdom of heaven 
that is burying Methodism beneath an avalanche of 
Divine indignation, which, unless repented of, will 
totally destroy her as a true branch of the living Vine. 
Unless there shall be a lot of thorough repentance of 
flings at 'the mourners'-bench,' there will be a big crowd 
of ecclesiastical 'mourners' in the eternal 'outer dark- 
ness,' where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing 
of teeth. 

"The Poison of Ungodly Members. — Church-join- 
ing meetings have largely taken the place of salvation 
meetings for the conversion and sanctification of the 
people, and efforts to get people into the Church have 
taken the place of getting them to God, and thus in 
many of the societies an unregenerate worldly harlot is 
aping as a Church of Christ. Such blasphemous sub- 
stitutions invite the awful lightnings of an angry God, 
instead of showers of blessing from Pentecostal skies. 



1^6 A He:ro o^ Faith and Praye:r. 

The testimonies and class-meetings which characterize 
true Methodism have largely been supplanted by Church 
kitchens and Church frolics, and the prayer-meeting by 
carnal Church sociables with no salvation in them. Un- 
less these great fundamental causes be removed by 
Scriptural repentance on the part of preachers and peo- 
ple, there can be no revival. A revival of Methodism 
with these poisons in it, as it now exists in many places, 
would be a curse to the kingdom of God, instead of a 
blessing. God demands repentance, and this alone will 
bring a real revival. The type of much modern Meth- 
odism which the devil is palming off for the true Wes- 
leyan article is a curse to Christianity, and its propaga- 
tion in foreign lands would be am.ong the awfulest ca- 
lamities that could possibly come to the heathen. 

"Of many of these societies it can be truly said in 
the language of Hosea ii, 2-5 : Tlead with your mother, 
plead.: for she is not my wife, neither am I her hus- 
band; let her therefore put away her whoredoms out 
of her sight, and her adulteries from between her 
breasts; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the 
day she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and 
set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And 
I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be 
the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath 
played the harlot ; she that hath conceived them hath 
done shamefully : for she said, I will go after my lovers, 
that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my 
flax, mine oil and my drink.' 

"The spread of these poisons through Methodism, 
is further shown by the fact that nine Methodist min- 
isters recently were in attendance at a popular theater 
in the city of New York. The play was called 'The 
Christian,' which represented how a beautiful actress 



Life: of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 197 

won the affections of a minister, a closing scene leaving 
her in his embrace. Referring to it, one of these min- 
isters said: 'Such pictures and. such lessons can do great 
good, and though theaters are not much in my line, yet 
with "The Christian" on the stage I can see in them 
forces that make for righteousness.' Shades of Paul 
and of John Wesley ! Yet from the semi-amusement 
clubs that many of our Churches have become this is 
but a natural result. The fearful extent to which this 
poison has spread is also evidenced by the carnal clamor 
coming from certain circles for the modification of para- 
graphs in the Discipline w^hich restrict amusements. 
Evidently, unless there is deep, radical, and speedy re- 
pentance, Ichabod must be written upon the coffin of this 
once mighty Church of God. 

*Xet not her sisters in sin and worldliness glory over 
her; for as bad as she is, many of them are still worse. 
A report of the manager of the theater above-named 
shows that three hundred and twenty-eight ministers, 
many of them with their families, were in attendance. 
Of this number not less than nine are known to have 
been Methodists, ten Episcopalians, twenty-one Congre- 
gationalists, twenty-four Baptists, thirty-two Presby- 
terians, and two hundred and thirty-two scattering or 
unclassified. One of this number moved a 'vote of 
thanks' to the manager of the theater, which was 'en- 
thusiastically carried,' and many of them have written 
glowing tributes of the affair. Many of these men carry 
the title of D. D., which in their cases evidently means 
Deluded Deceivers. We expect to notice their letters 
in a future number of the Revivalist. Their presence 
and action in this matter indicates that, while Meth- 
odism is in the fatal current, some other denominations 
have gone clear over the falls. Methodism has hosts of 



1^8 A Hp:ro oi^ Faith and PrayEr. 

God-fearing members and ministers in its communion, 
who, like the writer, can not be silenced. 

*'I do not write these things in a spirit of censorious- 
ness. My heart is pained beyond expression over the 
sad conditions here named, and that a Church which 
God would make one of the mightiest salvation move- 
ments of the century should be paralyzed with such 
poisons. I do it in behalf of evangelical Christianity, 
which is being awfully outraged and injured by such 
an example ; in behalf of the Methodist Church itself, 
hoping that it may be one of the trumpet-blasts which 
God is sending that will help to rouse her from her 
awful lethargy; in behalf of many ministers and mem- 
bers who, like the writer, feel that they must thus pro- 
test or become parties to the poisons ; in behalf of the 
multitudes of immortal souls who are perishing that 
might otherwise be saved; and in behalf of the large 
and growing Revivalist family, whose mission it is to 
point to that w^hich hinders from real revivals of primi- 
tive Pentecostal power, and because silence at such a 
time as this would grieve the Church of God, the Spirit 
of God, and the Son of God. 

''Of IMethodism and all other denominations which 
cherish poisons like those here named, God says, as of 
Israel of old : 'I hate, I despise your feast days, and I 
will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye 
offer Me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will 
not accept them ; neither will I regard the peace offer- 
ings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from Me the 
noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear the melody of 
thy viols. But let thy judgment run down as waters, 
and righteousness as a mighty stream.' (Amos v, 21- 
24.) And 'If My people which are called by My name, 
shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, 



Li^i: oi^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. igg 

and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from 
heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their 
land.' (2 Chron. vii, 14.)" 

Undoubtedly, Brother Knapp's ''heart was pained 
beyond expression" at the spiritual condition of his 
beloved Church, that seemed to him to call for such an 
editorial, and at the facts that gave it point and truth. 
As an editor of a religious paper especially devoted to 
the spread of holiness, he felt called to rebuke evil and 
spiritual declension wherever he found it, especially 
when in that Church that avowedly teaches the neces- 
sity of sanctification and stands before the world as the 
sponsor for holiness. 

In a similar vain, but with no such heart anguish, 
he wrote this editorial : 

'ToisoN IN the: Zion Pan. 

"In our issue of March 22, 1900, we devoted some 
space to warning words in regard to the movement con- 
ducted by J. A. Dowie, of Chicago. The position which 
we then took has been greatly confirmed. We have 
known of some who have been rescued from the errors 
connected with this deceptive system, and recent in- 
quiries dead us again to warn our readers by repeating 
the following from that issue : 

''A successful way of killing rats is by mixing a little 
strychnine in a big lot of meal. The rats see, smell, 
and in their hunger swallow the meal, strychnine, and 
all, and die. Satan exhibits similar strategy in poison- 
ing souls. In the 'Zion' basin he allows to be placed 
a lot of meal : 

"a. Of many gospel truths. 

"b. Of separation of believers from worldly frater- 
nities. 



200 A Hkro of Faith and Prayp:r. 

''c. Of the doctrines of repentance from many gross 
sins. 

"d. Of the doctrine of restitution of wrongs. 

"e. Of the teaching of Divine heahng — overdrawn. 

"f. Of admittance of God's claims to holy Hving. 

*'We rejoice in all these in themselves ; but as a true 
gospel minister, we must warn that they are used to 
hide deadly poisons which are hidden in the meal. 

''i. The Poison of Future Probation. — He says: 'I 
long to follow Jesus everywhere ; and I believe, by God's 
grace, that I shall follow Him to hell : for my heart 
goes out in pity and love for the ''lost" there as well 
as the "lost" here. May I be ''baptized for the dead" as 
well as for the living! O mothers, who are weeping 
over your "lost" sons and daughters now in hell, how 
I long to be God's messenger to them there ! . . . 
I want to see Jesus in heaven, and go just where He 
commands : for He will know what is best. But O how 
I long to be fitted for the work of preaching to the 
myriads of hell.' (Leaves of Healing.) 

"2. The Poison of no Eternal Punishment. — He 
says : 'The Revelation is not a little difficult ; but the 
Holy Spirit will enlighten them and you, and show you 
Jesus and the holy city, and the final triumph of the 
everlasting gospel in the establishment of the universal 
kingdom of God, and not a mere local kingdom of 
heaven, with an everlasting kingdom of hell.' 

"3. The Poison of Popery. — He says : 'I have the 
right to stand here and say in Zion, You have to do 
what I tell you! O! The whole Church? Yes! the 
whole Church — Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, 
Episcopal. It is the most daring thing I ever said. The 
time has come — I tell the Church universal everywhere, 



LiFi: oi? Rev. M. W. Knapp. 201 

m 

You have to do what I tell you. Do you hear? You 
have to do what I tell you, because I am the messenger 
of God's covenant.' 

''4. The Poison of Blasphemy. — In his paper, Oc- 
tober 25, 1895, page 41, he says : 'Do not forget that 
He, Jesus, was the Angel of the Covenant ;' and in a 
later issue he boldly declares : 'I am the messenger of 
God's covenant.' He is also reported as saying: Xook 
through the Bible, page by page ; you will find that 
God — through His own Son — effected less than thirty 
cures during the Savior's lifetime. I, Dr. John Alexander 
Dowie, in less than four years have effected more than 
ten thousand cures.' 

"5. The Poison of claiming, like the Book of Mor- 
mons, plenary inspiration of his utterances. — He says : 
'The Seventh Gospel (Leaves of Healing) is in every re- 
spect a continuance of the things "that Jesus began 
both to do and to teach," as Luke puts it in the Acts 
of the Apostles.' 

"6. The Poison of Perverted Scripture. — In his 
Bible-class lesson of January 19, 1900, he represents his 
proposed rival Chicago as the promised city, 'whose 
builder and maker is God.' 

"7. The Poison of Smothering Testimony to the 
fully-sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost. — He has 
declared in his paper that such testimonies should not 
be given, thus becoming a party to the smothering 
of the fire of the Spirit in the believer's heart. He 
mightily magnifies testimonies to the healing of the 
body, but has derided testimony to the entire sancti- 
fication (complete healing) of the soul ! 

"These are a few from kindred poison powders with 
which the Zion meal-pan abounds. 



202 A He:ro of^ Faith and Prayer. 

"If you value spiritual life, food, and fire — beware! 

"To the above list should also be added : 

"The Poison of Falsehood. — His paper deliberately 
stated that the above charges, which are proved by 
issues of his own paper, are Hes. He thus shows himself 
to be guilty of one of the very things which he so 
strongly condemns in others. We are pained that there 
should be such a monstrous perversion of the principles 
of the gospel under the name of its defense." 

These editorials were among the "hard things," as 
his wife calls them, that this brave soul felt called upon 
to do for God. He was naturally a man of peace, and 
did not love war._ Such editorials brought him censure 
and strife from others, that consumed prematurely the 
feeble forces of his physical nature, and hastened his end. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
COURAGE TO VENTURE. 

"Energy, invincible determination, with a right motive, are the levers 
that move the world." — President Noah Porter. 

** The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference be- 
tween men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignifi- 
cant, is energy, invincible determination. That quality will do anything 
that can be done in this world ; and no talents, no circumstances, no oppor- 
tunities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it." 

— Sir Fowell Buxton. 

" I would have you regard courage as nearly the supreme quality in 
character. One may get rich without it ; one may live a * good easy life ' 
without it ; but one can not live a full and noble life without it. It is the 
quality by which one rises in the line of each faculty ; it is the wings that 
turn dull plodding into flight. It is the courage especially that redeems life 
from the curse of commonness." — T. T. Hunger. 

Brother Knapp had that magnificent courage that 
lifted him entirely above ''the curse of commonness" 
and made him great. I think it was the result of God 
in him. I question whether that timid boy would have 
been so daring in his ambitions and so nobly courageous 
in his undertakings but for the fact that God was in 
him and with him. But he prayed much, and kept in 
touch with God; and his brave and adventurous under- 
takings had the risk seemingly taken out of them by 
his partnership with Omnipotence. 

In July, 1900, in passing from Northern Ohio to 
Texas, I spent the night with our beloved friend in 
Cincinnati. He got me up early, and took me out be- 

203 



204 



A Hkro o^ Faith and Praykr. 



fore my breakfast, and showed me a square with a noble 
residence on it, for which $100,000 had once been re- 
fused. If he bought it, he must close the bargain that 
day. It would cost over $20,000. He had but a few hun- 
dred in hand. It would make a home for his family, his 
paper, and a Bible-school. He asked my advice whether 
he should buy. I saw at once its magnificent location, and 
I felt that such a property would never have been offered 
for such a price and on such terms of payments unless 
God's hand was in it. I told him, if he had faith in God 
for the money, to get it by all means. No doubt others 
had told him the same. He bought the property that 
day. ''Bessie" tells the story as follows : 

"Two years ago, after long holding before the Lord, 
He made it clear that He wished Brother Knapp to 
open the Bible-school and Missionary-training Home. 
This at first seemed utterly impossible. Mr. Knapp 
would pray over it, and have others pray over it. He 
said he was not worthy for God to trust him with the 
souls of the boys and girls, and he could not under- 
stand why God did not use some one else ; but the Lord 
knew whom He could trust, and He said, 'You are the 
man.' Then he began looking about for buildings. Not 
a cent with the exception of $100, of which we shall 
speak later; not a friend from whom he could expect 
the money; no capital or backing of any kind, except 
faith in an almighty, omnipotent God, the Maker of 
heaven and earth. The next question was, 'When should 
the school be opened, and where were the buildings to 
come from? Who would be the teachers?' The devil 
said, 'Your hands are full ; you can not teach any class ; 
you do not know anybody else to get ; and you will 
only be a laughing stock to the world.' But the matter 
was constantly held before the Lord, and one day there 



LiFK OP* Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



205 



came a feeling over Mr. Knapp that the property had 
been found. Looking it through, it seemed exactly to 
meet the needs. This property consisted of two acres 
of ground and two large buildings on the highest point 
of Hamilton County, overlooking the city. One of the 
buildings was an old-fashioned frame, and the other a 
modern brick, the two together comprising thirty rooms, 
besides the bath-rooms, these all being in good con- 
dition ; and there was room, as stated before, to erect 
other buildings as they should be needed. We felt con- 
vinced that this was God's place ; and when the price 
was inquired, it was away beyond our reach; but we 
knew that if God wanted it He could bring them to His 
own terms, and we continued to hold the matter before 
Him. The agent told us that, not long before, they 
had refused $100,000 for the place ; but God made it 
clear and plain that $20,000 was all that we could offer 
them for it. This the owners accepted, even to the 
astonisment of the agents themselves ; but we knew that 
it was in answer to prayer. It now became necessary 
for faith to be verified. By July ist the deeds were to 
be made out and signed, and the first payment of $2,000 
was to be given. The money was not in sight ; and 
yet we knew God had some steward who had just the 
amount of money, so we published in the RevivaHst the 
facts in the case, and that we claimed the promise, 'What 
things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them, and ye shall have them.' One day such 
joy as has seldom ever been manifested in the Revivalist 
Home came, on account of a letter received from a 
friend in Philadelphia, saying that he believed the Bible- 
school was of God, and pledging $1,000. We laughed, 
and shouted, and cried, and praised God. Faith had 
been verified; God had been true to His promise; but 



2o6 A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

there was still another $i,ooo lacking. Before the day 
of the transfer of deeds the money was in ; and that 
night, when the property had passed into our hands, 
to be held as trustees for God and souls, there must 
have been in heaven a re-echo of joy. I shall never 
forget how, at family worship the next morning, Mr. 
Knapp broke down before the Lord, as he said he 
was not worthy, and questioned how He could have 
trusted him, and thanked and praised Him and shouted 
the victory. It just seemed as if the air was weighted 
with the glory of God. But the devil was not dead, 
even though God had given the victory ; and he sug- 
gested, 'Now you have gotten that property in your 
hands, you have got to open the school, and where are 
your teachers and where are your students?' But we 
turned the matter over to the Lord, and the day was 
settled upon for the opening of the school ; and after 
the first notice appeared in the Revivalist, letters be- 
gan coming from all parts of the country asking for 
admittance, terms, etc., and when the opening day came, 
there were a number of students enrolled, and God 
had supplied the teachers. It was wonderful, and yet 
just like OUT God. Mr. Knapp continually prayed : 'O 
Lord, open the way for every boy and girl that ought 
to be here ; and close up and block up the way for 
every one who should not come. Thou knowest their 
hearts. This is Thy place. Send only those whom thou 
dost choose.' And He did it. Such a band of noble 
young men and women, who were determined to sell 
out all for Jesus and go with Him every step of the way ! 
Mr. Knapp loved them, every one ; and many a time 
he would look up and thank God for His choice of 
students. But our faith was to be tested still further. 
God was calling more students than our capacities could 



Li^i) 01^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 207 

accommodate ; then began to come the question for 
room. Also camp-meeting was on hand, and we needed 
a place for it. God said, 'Hold it on the Mount of 
Blessings ;' but there was no place for the services. 
His leadings in the matter became very clear and plain 
that He wished a tabernacle to be built ; but there was 
not a cent of money v/ith which to begin it. The m.at- 
ter was talked about and held before Him, and one 
Sunday evening, in a little service in the mission, the 
first $300 was given for that purpose. This was held 
until the ist of January, 1901, when, on New-Year's 
Day, we had one of the most blessed and wonderful 
services that has ever been held in the Bible-school. 
A young lady, whose mother was a student, was invited 
to spend the holidays here, and came from her home 
in Virginia. We little knew how prejudiced she was ; 
and she had been here but a few days when she de- 
clared that she was going home, that we were fanatical, 
and that she did not believe as we did. In talking to 
her mother she remarked, 'Mother, these people live 
on their knees, and I will never do that.' She decided 
to get away from us just as soon as possible. She 
was well educated, talented, and one of the world's 
choice spirits. We had been praying for her a month 
before she came, and fully expected God to get hold 
of her. The morning she decided to go her mother 
pleaded, begged, and cried; but she was invincible, and 
said she would not stay here another hour. Her mother 
took her by the arm and fairly dragged her over to 
the office to see Mr. Knapp before she went away. She 
told him she did not believe in self-denial as we prac- 
ticed it. There was such a thing as having too much 
salvation, and that we were off on that line. Mr. Knapp 
excused himself for a few minutes and left the room. 



2o8 A Hero o^ Faith and Prayer. 

She little dreamed what his object was. It was to get 
a number who knew how to get hold of the Throne to 
go into a room and hold onto God for her. For two 
hours he reasoned with her, and gradually she kept 
softening and breaking a little more and a little more, 
until finally she gave it all up. The Spirit of God was 
wonderfully working on her heart. It almost seemed 
to me that the very angels were listening with bated 
breath, the fight between the powers of hght and dark- 
ness was so intense. The victory was won, and she 
decided to stay, and made up her mind to be impartial, 
and to walk in the light if God gave it to her. He was 
then giving her light that she scarcely realized herself; 
but New-Year's morning, about ten o'clock, in the 
chapel, she stepped out on the promises of God, and He 
came down and wonderfully sanctified her. What a 
jubilee we had ! 

"Before the Thanksgiving service, God had given 
Brother Standley the gift of faith for $i,ooo for the 
tabernacle, and he knew it was coming. When the New- 
Year service began, Mr. Knapp was telling about how 
we believed that God was going to work, and that he 
believed God. He was called to the back of the room 
and a man handed him one dollar. Mr. Knapp held it 
up and cried out, 'Here 's God's witness for the taber- 
nacle !' and like an electric shock a thrill seemed to go 
through the whole congregation, and people began call- 
ing out amounts that they wanted to subscribe. The 
Holy Ghost Himself was just working on hearts and 
leading in everything. In the midst of it the young 
lady above referred to, who had been sanctified in the 
morning, stood up and said, *In the bank at my home I 
have $700. I was saving it to use for myself; but I 
have spent my time and my money up to this time for 



Li]?K OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



209 



the world and worldly things, and now, this evening, 
I want to make God a love-offering of that $700.' What 
a time we had ! The saints laughed, and cried, and 
shouted. They sang 'Praise God, from whom all bless- 
ings flow,' over and over. The students jumped and 
waved their handkerchiefs. You could scarcely hear 
anything but 'Glory to God! Glory to God!' When 
the amount subscribed was counted, it was found that 
God had sent in $1,400; but this was not all. The 
young woman went back to Virginia to her work of 
schoolteaching imtil the time of the camp-meeting. 
During that lime God called her to the Beulah Heights 
work. Her life was completely transformed. She had 
been very fashionable, and prided herself on rich, costly 
apparel; but now all was changed. Soon after she was 
sanctified, she boxed up her rich silk dresses, etc., and 
shipped them home. She had no more use for them ; 
but put on the neat, simple garments that 'becometh 
women professing godliness.' Instead of being the 
proud, worldly girl that she had been, the power of 
Christ had so transformed her that every one loved her 
with a deep, tender love. She was so humble and gentle 
and sweet ! Speaking one day to a friend, she repeated 
what she had previously said that she would not 'live 
on her knees' as these people at the Mount of Blessings 
did, and said, 'Now I am only too thankful for the privi- 
lege of finding some little spot where I can live on 
my knees, and pour out my life for God.' O reader, if 
you get one glimpse of Jesus in all His fullness, it will 
spoil you forever for this world ! Glory to God ! Every 
soul who gets the 'real thing' will be just as much trans- 
formed as she was. We had known nothing about their 
financial circumstances ; but on the Fourth of July — 
that day when God's people brought in their treasures 
H 



2IO ^ Hero o^ Faith and Prayer. 

for the work here — we saw the daughter go across the 
room and speak to her mother ; then, with several 
others, her mother went out to pray, and she soon after 
left the tabernacle, joined them, and said, 'Mother, what 
does God say to you?' The answer was, 'Madge, He 
says our farm in Texas.' She said, 'Mother, that is 
what God says to me.' Calling Brother Knapp, she 
told him she wanted Jesus to have that farm in Texas 
which would bring $5,000 when sold. God had done 
great things for them, and they could trust Him to 
supply their every need. He has done it. The mother 
expects, when God opens the way, to carry the glad 
tidings to the lepers in India ; and, speaking of the 
separation, the daughter said : 'Mother, I love you so 
much, and I will miss you so much ; but if Jesus wants 
you for India, and does not call me. Amen. What He 
wants, we want. We will meet again with Him in the 
air, never to be separated throughout the ages of eter- 
nity.' If only every father and mother and son and 
daughter who names the name of Christ would embrace 
the will of God like that, it would not be long until 
the uttermost parts of the earth would reverberate with 
the glad story of full salvation. 

On April ist, through faith in God, the sod was 
broken for the new tabernacle, in the name of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the students standing by 
with bowed heads. We knew, then, from the peace 
and unction which came upon every heart that that 
building was to be precious in God's sight. We looked 
forward to the multitudes of souls who should be saved 
and sanctified and go out from there into 'the dark places 
of the earth, which are full of the habitations of cruelty,' 
although we little dreamed then that, before another 
April morning, he who looked up that morning with 



Lii'i) oi? Re:v. M. W. Knapp, 211 

such gratitude and praise to God, and with such faith 
that He would see the building up and would supply 
the needed means, would be safe beyond the pearly gates 
throughout all eternity. It was marvelous the way God 
touched the hearts of His children to send in the needed 
means, and the rapidity with which the building went 
up. It just seemed as if everything was harmony, and 
with the thud of the hammers we could hear the shouts 
and songs of victory. God's hand was even on the 
workmen. One day a young man, a student, was work- 
ing on the second floor when he fell through an open- 
ing, about eight feet. We all expected to find him in- 
jured ; but, besides being shaken up a little, the fall 
never hurt him in the least, and he said, as he went 
down, he knew God was not going to let him get hurt. 
The tabernacle was inclosed and sufficiently finished in 
building as to be ready for occupancy the opening day 
of the camp-meeting; but in reference to it God's plan 
was above ours. It was at first planned to have only 
the auditorium, but He kept increasing and making 
His will plain until a dormitory was added above, con- 
taining thirty rooms for boys. The first Sunday of the 
camp-meeting the building was dedicated to God, and 
as Brother Rees presented it to Him and asked Him 
to go through it from top to bottom and fill it with 
His presence, the glory of the Shekinah filled the place, 
and we felt that God had accepted the offering. From 
that altar numbers have gone out victors through the 
blood. At that altar others have been called to the for- 
eign field, others healed, others baptized with the Holy 
Ghost ; others have received the gifts of the Spirit ; and, 
twice in the presence of the dead, souls got through to 
God. This is only the beginning. Day after day, and 
year after year, souls will be getting through to God. 



212 A Hero o:^ Faith and Prayer. 

Ko one will ever be able to tell, until we reach heaven, 
what a Bethel it has been, and will be, to souls. There 
is something in the very room itself that quiets and 
rests you." 

I was laboring in Cincinnati on two different occa- 
sions when Brother Knapp was seeking everywhere for 
a suitable place for a permanent camp-meeting. Bes- 
sie gives this account of it. It was held the first two 
years on the fairground. 

"Three years ago, when God led to the establish- 
ment of the first camp-meeting, it seemed a great under- 
taking; but He gave the wisdom and made the plans. 
Brother Rees was in charge, and God came down at 
every service, and souls were born into the kingdom. 
Last year, at the Mount of Blessings, it surpassed every- 
thing that we had ever anticipated. Victory was in 
every service. Young and old, rich and poor, sick and 
well, black and white, kneeled at the altars and found 
God. Brother Knapp knew before the camp-meeting 
opened that God was going to be there. He had the 
gift of faith for the souls that afterward found victory. 
How he rejoiced to meet the Revivalist family! He 
would come over to the house and say : 'I have met with 
so many of them to-day, it does me good to shake 
hands with them. Is not God good to give them all 
to us ? How I love them !' Then he would speak of 
one and another, and he just seemed to have on his 
heart every member of the Revivalist family as if they 
belonged to him, and he loved them with a love that 
would have sacrificed anything that they might have 
gotten through to God. As many times as he would 
stand and look out of the window across at the taber- 
nacle and at the white tents, he would clap his hands 
together and say: 'Glory to God! This makes me 



hi^^ OP Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 213 

think of when we all get home to heaven. We will 
hear just such shouting and praising all the time.' 
Then, with a change of tone so quiet and sad, he would 
say, 'Holy Ghost, take out and root up everything un- 
holy, and help every one to get right with Thee.' He 
was concerned that no soul should meet nim at the 
judgment and say that he had not been faithful to his 
soul, that he had not been his brother's keeper. The 
evening of July 4th, after that great collection and vic- 
tory, he came up to the office, and buried his face in 
his hands on the desk, and staid there silent for so long 
that I spoke to him, and said, 'Brother Knapp, are you 
sick?' There was no answer; and again, -Brother 
Knapp, are you tired?' [Like a flash he raised his face 
and looked at me, and :': must have been Hke Moses 
when he came down from the mountain, and *wist not 
that his face shone.' His eyes were shining with a light 
not of this world, and he said: 'Bessie, who can meas- 
ure the length and breadth and height and depth of 
the love of God? His doings are marvelous in our 
eyes ; but this is only a drop of what it will be when we 
get there,' and then buried his face in his hands, and 
I left him. I do not know how long he staid there, 
bowed in utter humility and adoration before God. 

"The First Moni:y Given Towards the Mount oii* 
Bi^EssiNGs Property. 

''Three or four years ago, in her country home in 
Virginia, the Holy Ghost awakened a sanctified woman 
one night out of her sleep with a message something 
like this : "In a few days you will receive a check for 
$100. I want you to send the entire amount to M. W. 
Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio, towards buying a Revivalist 
Home.' With this humble servant of God, to hear was 



214 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

to obey, and a few days later, when the $ioo came, 
she immediately forwarded it to Brother Knapp accord- 
ing to her heaven-sent instructions. This was the seed- 
corn, as you might say, of the thousands that have since 
been given to buy this property and erect the needed 
buildings. At that time there was nothing in sight, and 
God had not made His plans plain for the buying of 
the property. J\Ir. Knapp wrote the sister that he 
vvould like to return the money for her keeping, on this 
account, but she refuses to take it back, and a few 
months later God's plans began to unfold like a beau- 
tiful flower, and the sequel has already been related. 
Glory, glory to God forever ! 'His ways are past find- 
ing out.' 'He is a great God above all gods,' 'and we 
are the sheep of His pasture.' Hallelujah!" 

In these wonderful ways God honored the heaven- 
inspired courage, and responded to the faith and prayers 
of that great soul, and unlocked the hearts and pocket- 
books of men and women, and put their money at his 
disposal. 



CHAPTER XV. 

WITHDRAWING FROM THE METHODIST 
CHURCH. 

" Blest is the man whose heart and hands are pure ! 
He hath no sickness that he shall not cure, 
No sorrow that he may not well endure ; 
His feet are steadfast, and his hope is sure. 

O, blest is he who ne'er hath sold his soul, 
Whose will is perfect, and whose word is whole ; 
Who hath not paid to common sense the toll 
Of self-disgrace, nor owned the world's control ! 

Through clouds and shadows of the darkest night, 
He will not lose a glimmering of the light ; 
Nor, though the sun of day be shrouded quite. 
Swerve from the narrow path to left or right." 

— J. Addington Symonds. 

Said a dying professor of mathematics to a brilliant 
but godless pupil: "No man is competent to calculate 
accurately until he has as perfect a conception of two- 
ness as he has of one-ness. You can not estimate things 
correctly unless you take into your calculations an- 
other as well as yourself. You are but one integer. 
Handling, however perfectly, one factor, your calcula- 
tions are extremely limited. The other factor is God. 
Stay; I err. You are not a unit! You are, I am, but 
zero ; that is, apart from God. Admitting him, all other 
factors follow; not otherwise. Remember what I tell 
you ; this is the sum of all ; separate quality from quan- 

215 



2i6 A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

tity, and your result is wrong; omit eternity in your 
estimate as to area, and your conclusion is wrong ; fasten 
your attention exclusively upon yourself, and leave out 
God, and your equation is wrong, false, and utterly 
WTong." 

Brother Knapp was that blessed man of whom the 
poet sang, "whose heart and hands were pure." He 
never sold himself out to anybody or anything. He 
set his face upon Jesus, and swerved not from the nar- 
row path. He never left the all-important factor, God, 
out of the problem of his life, nor eternity out of the 
area of his hopes. Perhaps this is why God was so gra- 
ciously present with him. Did I say "perhaps?" Who 
can doubt that this was the reason that God blessed the 
labor of his hands and brain and heart, and, as he 
himself said, "caused whatsoever he did to prosper?" 

It is now my duty to record an event that probably 
cost Brother Knapp more pain than anything else he 
ever did. People will always be divided in their opinion 
about the wisdom of it; at least they are now. When 
he did it, the batteries of abuse were opened upon him 
from all sides. North, South, East, and West. Holi- 
ness people and anti-holiness people joined hands to 
hunt this dear man as a partridge upon the mountains. 
But when the archers shot at him, "his bow abode in 
strength." 

** And the arms of his hands were made strong 
By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob." 

One time, after a fearful arraignment of him In a 
religious paper that we will not name, I wrote him to 
leave the matter with Jesus and make no reply. He 
wrote back : "God has kept me sweet through it all, 
and I have resolved, God helping me, never to say an- 



Li^K OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



217 



other word nor to write another Hne in my own de- 
fense." 

What the reader or the writer thinks of this mat- 
ter is of no significance whatever. This precious brother 
nobly earned the right to have his hfe pictured as he 
lived it, and it needs neither defense nor apology. 

Brother Knapp gave two accounts of why he with- 
drew from the Methodist Episcopal Church. One was 
written evidently for the Michigan Advocate, and the 
other for his own paper, the Revivalist. I give both, 
as each throws light upon the matter : 

"An ExpIvAnatgry ArticIvE. 

"As my withdrawal from the Methodist Church has 
been noticed in the Advocate, and as I have been identi- 
fied so long with Michigan Methodism, it seems right 
and just to both the Church and myself that I should 
state some of the reasons which have led to this change. 

"It was not because of any lack in my own heart- 
experience or of love for God's people in the Method- 
ist Church. 

"It was not because of any opposition which I have 
met as a holiness preacher. 

"I have always been identified with the branch of 
Methodism which believes in old-time Bible religion, 
embracing entire sanctification as a second work and 
the Pentecostal life which follows. The fearful decad- 
ence of modern Methodism from the old standard has 
been a source of great grief to me for a long time ; but 
I have preached and prayed and hoped that she might 
be revived, and her children f^y back to the standard 
of her early history and of Pentecost. Bible holiness 
makes its possessor 'more than conqueror' wherever 
the Spirit and providences of God place him. Until 



2i8 A H^Ro o^ Faith and Praye:r. 

recently I have felt that place with me to be the Meth- 
odist Church. The following facts have in the last 
few months led me to change my mind: 

"i. The fact that modern Methodism is composed 
largely of unconverted members and of unsanctified 
officials, while early Methodism and primitive Chris- 
tianity were just the reverse. Under these conditions, 
where temporary revivals are given, their spiritual re- 
sults are soon smothered. I have looked in vain for 
years for any considerable number of our stronger 
Churches to become Pentecostal revival Churches. 

"2. The criminal complicity of many of her mem- 
bers and officials with the liquor-traffic and with the 
world's fashions and fraternities has so grieved the Holy 
Ghost that His old-time saving, sanctifying presence is 
largely withdrawn, and while His co-operation is felt 
with those who are true, yet their work is often nega- 
tived by those who are not; and, instead of spread- 
ing Scriptural holiness, as taught by John Wesley, mod- 
ern Methodism is fearfully eliding and too often op- 
posing it, even many so-called revivals being nothing but 
Church-joining meetings. 

"3. God forbids His people being 'unequally yoked 
together with unbelievers.' Primitive Methodism was 
very jealous of the piety of her members. Her socie- 
ties were composed of regenerated people, and meas- 
ures were used to keep her societies pure. All this is 
changed, and I am awakened to the fact that member- 
ship in Methodism to-day means affiliation with unbe- 
Hevers. 

"4. The matter of my withdrawal has for some time 
come to me in such a way that my prayers for faith 
and victory in my own soul and work would have been 
hindered had I refused. After long and earnest prayer 



Li^^ OP* Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 219 

and testing by the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and 
the providence of God, it was made very clear to me 
that the time had come to take the step that I have, 
and God has wonderfully blessed me in so doing. 

"5. Because after repeated warnings by many of her 
sons and a recent warning call by her bishops, she re- 
fuses to repent. 

"6. In addition to all of this, God has so filled my 
head, hands, heart, and life with providential salvation 
work outside of Methodism that I have little time or 
means to give her, and I am no longer clear in holding 
membership with a body and not acting with it and giv- 
ing it my support. 

"This step was taken without any pressure being 
brought to bear upon me from any human source, and 
I have the sweet assurance that God is in it and that 
it is best for the interests of His kingdom. There is 
pain at the severing of these denominational relations, 
many of which have been sweet, pleasant, and profitable ; 
yet I have the deep assurance of continued union and 
fellowship of the Holy Ghost and all members of the 
Church that is greater than any denomination, and re- 
joice in these ties which bind us together just as closely 
as if the old continued to exist. 

"When I united with the Conference, many thought 
it was a mistake. When I felt called of God to enter 
the evangelistic field, many others were like-minded. 
When God led me to Cincinnati, still others were fear- 
ful. When I went to the Maryland meetings, many ob- 
jected ; but in all these instances, when the facts were 
all known, God vindicated the course which He led 
me to take, and I have the settled assurance that He 
will in this instance. 

"I appreciate the spirit manifested by Brother 



220 A Hero o^ Faith and Praykr. 

IMaveety who, in his reply to my note of withdrawal, 
among other things, writes : 'While I most sincerely 
regret to part with you, and believe that I express the 
feelings of a large majority of both ministers and lay- 
men in our Conference, when I also express their re- 
grets at the separation, yet I recognize the consistency 
of your action, and hope that your work may glorify 
God and help in the establishment of His kingdom in 
the earth.' 

''Though no longer bound together by denomina- 
tional ties, I still covet the prayers of God's people, with 
whom I was associated for so many years. May God 
bless you all and lead into the fullness of the blessings 
of the gospel of peace ! Let old friends or new ones 
remember, when in Cincinnati, that they will be just as 
warmly welcomed by me when they call at the Revival- 
ist office, Mount of Blesssings, Mount Auburn, as if I 
were still a member of the Michigan Conference. 

"In gospel bonds, "M. W. Knapp." 

"Why I Withdrew erom the Methodist Episcopai, 
Church. 

"It was not because of any complaint against my 
Christian character. My last Conference passed my 
character, and the pastor of the Church where my name 
was identified testified : 

'' 'To Whom It May Concern: This is to certify that 
Rev. M. W. Knapp and family are acceptable members 
of the Freeman Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Cincinnati. 

" 'Rev. M. W. Knapp's character as a minister is 
clear before God and man, and as he can not appear be- 
fore his Conference brethren, I, as his pastor, cheer- 



Lii'^K OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 221 

fully render this certificate as required by Discipline.' 

''The presiding elder to whom I sent my withdrawal, 
referred to in last week's Revivalist, among other things 
writes : 

" 'While I most sincerely regret to part with you, 
and believe that I express the feelings of a large ma- 
jority of both ministers and laymen in our Conference 
when I also express their regrets at the separation, 
yet I recognize the consistency of your action, and hope 
that your work may glorify God and help in the estab- 
lishment of His kingdom in the earth/ 

"It was, not because of any hard feelings toward the 
denomination or its ministers, to both of which I was 
deeply attached, and the facts which compel the sepa- 
ration pain me more deeply than I can express. My love 
especially to my brethren of the Michigan Conference 
doubtless has blinded me from seeing my duty in this 
regard sooner than I otherwise would. The following 
are some of the reasons which led to my decision : 

"First of all, God has so filled my hands, heart, and 
life with providential, evangelical work outside of the 
Methodist Church that I have little time or means to 
invest directly in it, and I feel that it is inconsistent 
to be a member of a body, and not act with it, and 
not give it my support. 

"Second. Because of the sinful complicity of the 
Church and many of its leading officials with the liquor- 
traffic. 

"Third. Because of the awful conformity of the 
Church to the world and the union of its ministers and 
members with its fraternities, fairs, festivals, and 
fashions. 

"Fourth. Because modern Methodism, with its un- 
saved membership, worldly officials, godless choirs, and 



222 A He:ro 01^ Faith and Praye:r. 

complicity with the world, is but a travesty on original 
Methodism and primitive Christianity. 

''Fifth. Because of her neglect and rejection of Bible 
holiness, claiming to be a society for its spread, when 
she is becoming largely a society for its suppression, 
tolerating a mere theoretical holiness and rejecting the 
true. 

"Sixth. Because while in some places she ehdes or 
opposes sanctification, yet there is evidence that in oth- 
ers she seeks members under the pretense of being a 
genuine holiness Church. I can be no party to this. 

"Seventh. Because she is largely substituting edu- 
cation for the baptism with the Holy Ghost, the corner- 
stone of her university at Washington being laid by 
Freemasons. 

"Eighth. Because she welcomes an unsanctified of- 
ficiary, instead of men 'baptized with the Holy Ghost 
and full of faith and of the Spirit,' as the Scripture de- 
mands. 

"Ninth. Because, after repeated admonitory warn- 
ings from many of her sons and a recent call by her 
bishops, she absolutely refuses to repent, and is sailing 
faster than ever into the whirlpool which is ingulfing 
her. 

"Tenth. Because I believe the time has come when 
I can serve her spiritual interests better upon some res- 
cuing lifeboat than upon the sinking ship. 

"Eleventh. Because the Bible forbids being un- 
equally yoked together with unbelievers, while the 
Alethodist Church yokes up with Hcense voters and all 
kinds of sinners. 

"Twelfth. Because for weeks the matter has come 
up in such a way as to have hindered my faith and 
prayers had I refused. 



hi'^n oi^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 223 

"Thirteenth. Because after months of earnest 
prayer and consideration I have a solid, sweet assur- 
ance that God so leads, and that He who has given 
me victory at every other crisis in my experience will 
be with me in this, and bring out of it the greatest good 
to man and the greatest glory to Himself. 

"O Methodism ! Methodism ! how oft some of thy 
sons would have restored thee to thy former power 
and to primitive purity, but thou wouldst not ! Behold 
thy commission is taken from thee and given to others 
(Holiness Churches), who are bringing forth fruit unto 
holiness. O that thou hadst been true to God and to 
the work of spreading Scriptural holiness which He 
committed unto thee ! Then had thy peace been as a 
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. 

"Re:marks. 

"Let all who feel that God is leading them keep in 
touch with Him, learn His will, and do it. If to remain 
and warn, continue ; if otherwise, follow Him. 

" 'What are people to do when their mission in a 
dead or dying Church is done?' Unite with some 
branch of the true vine. God's Spirit and providence 
will make the way plain. The Holy Ghost adds those 
who are being saved to some visible congregation of 
believers. Holiness is antagonistic to anarchistical 
Come-outism, which believes in no Church assembly. 
We were not outside of a Church for one single moment. 
The same Spirit that led out of one led into another. 

"Is not this 'Come-outism?' Far from it, unless it 
is 'Come-outism' to come out of Come-outism. Mod- 
ern Methodism largely has 'come out' from primitive 
Methodism and of God's real Church, and is simply a 
social club posing as a Church. To leave such a club 



224 



A He:ro of Faith and Prayer. 



Is no more 'Come-outism/ in a bad sense, than to leave 
a worldly lodge. Many of her societies are worse than 
lodges, in that they add to their worldliness the sin of 
professing to be the Church of Christ. 

"There is a pain connected with being no longer in 
denominational connection with many true children of 
God ; but we have the sweet assurance that we are 
still one in the union of the invisible Church, and that 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost which God has given 
us binds us together just as closely as if old ties existed. 

''God's Revivalist, as heretofore, is His organ for 
believers of every name, and the fact that the New 
Testament principles involved has compelled my sepa- 
ration from my early relations does not change its policy 
nor effect its mission to readers of every name. Its 
aim shall continue to be to furnish New Testament wine 
and food and fire as God may lead. 

"Mistake:s Corri:cte:d. 

''We call attention to the following corrections of 
certain mistakes which are being widely circulated : 

"It is a mistake that we advise people indiscrimi- 
nately to leave their respective Churches, to unite with 
a new Church. We never have done this, and do not 
do it now. Let every man be fully persuaded in his 
own mind, learn God's will, and do it, is our advice. 

"It is a mistake that we indorse costly churches. On 
the other hand, we have been outspoken against them, 
and continue to be so, notwithstanding the fact that, 
through a mistake, the cut of one was published in the 
Revivalist in a recent issue. 

"It is a mistake that hatred of carnal ecclesiasticism 
and resistance to it is inconsistent with perfect love ; 
on the other hand, it is a fruitage of it, as is illustrated 



Lii^e: of Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



225 



in the lives of Jesus, Paul, and in all who have the 
fullness of the Holy Ghost abiding. 

"It is a mistake that we ever made an effort to 
get the 'Temple' enterprise 'entirely under the control 
of an Official Board in Cincinnati,' and something a 
great deal worse than a mistake to bring such a charge, 
and on the top of it accuse us of 'selfish motives in all 
this management.' 

"It is an awful, awful mistake for a Holiness min- 
ister and editor to use his guns in the defense of a car- 
nal ecclesiasticism, that is cursing and blighting and 
damning multitudes of holiness people, and turn them 
upon a movement that is getting people saved and sanc- 
tified continually, and girdling the globe with salvation. 

"It is an awful mistake to accuse Spirit-filled, Spirit- 
led men of being possessed of a spirit of hate because 
of fidelity to New Testament principles and exposure of 
humbuggery and sin and hypocrisy in the Church and 
in the Holiness movement. 

"It is a mistake that the St. Louis movement was 
'instigated and carried forward' by us. We have re- 
ported it the same as we have any other department of 
the Holiness Movement, and have stood for the rights 
of the St. Louis people and all other people where God 
so led to form Independent Holiness Churches ; but we 
are in no way responsible for any unscriptural attach- 
ments that may have caused its downfall. 

"A Holiness 'federation,' the main object of which 
is to hold Holiness people in a denomination of tobacco- 
chewing preachers and unconverted members is a mis- 
take that can but be fraught with the blood of souls. 

"It is a mistake to charge true gospel ministers, who 
warn believers of the perils of compromising with god- 
less ecclesiasticisms, and champion their Scriptural 
IS 



226 A Hero o:^ Faith and Praye:r. 

rights to unite with any Holiness Church, as coveting 
the honor of being at the head of a new denomination. 
"It is a mistake that Brother and Sister Hall, of 
St. Louis, have been 'dropped' from our work, as they 
have never been identified with it, except that Sister 
Hall visited our camp-meeting, participating in it the 
same as any other similar visitor, and has contributed 
a few articles to the RevivaHst. 

'Xie:s Forgiven. 

"Satan has recently been circulating a number of 
lies against the editor of the Revivalist. We are pained 
that he has deceived some, who should know better, 
into believing and circulating them. 

"i. The He that we are ambitious to start a new 
denomination, and to be at the head of a new ecclesi- 
asticism. This is untrue. In fact, we believe that the 
New Testament Church has little ecclesiasticism. Jesus 
Christ is the Head of it, the Holy Ghost the General 
Superintendent, sanctified officials its executors, and 
there is no law-making department. A trouble with 
most Churches has been in men usurping authority 
which belonged to the Supreme Head, and of making 
laws, instead of executing those already made. In God's 
Church this ceases, and there is no room for carnal 
officials. 

''2. The He that we have lost the sweetness and rich- 
ness of our former religious experience. Nothing could 
be further from the truth. The awful things which we 
are compelled to say we do in a spirit of tender love, 
and never enjoyed so much of the Divine presence and 
favor in our hearts and home and work as during the 
past few months. 



Lii^]^ 6? Ri:v. M. W. Knapp. 



227 



"3. The He that we not only have lost the spirit of 
perfect love, but that we have a spirit of hatred toward 
those that differ from us. This is also false. 'He that 
hateth his brother is a murderer.' God took that spirit 
away from us when He converted us, and has given 
us perfect love through the baptism with the Holy 
Ghost, so that there is not one single uprising of hard 
feeling toward even those who are so persistently cir- 
culating these evil reports. If we could not rebuke error 
in the Church and in the Holiness Movement, as well 
as outside, in the spirit of perfect love, we would fly 
to the altar., 

"4. The lie that we are serving God, fighting error, 
and sending out missionaries and securing Mount of 
Blessings for purely selfish purposes. This is untrue, as 
black as night. We handle all moneys for missionary 
work and for the school without one cent of remunera- 
tion, except the joy of being the channel through which 
God is working, and we hold the Mount of Blessings 
property as a trustee, to be transferred to my spiritual 
successors and held in trust for God and His full gospel 
until Jesus comes. 

''The lie that we are bordering on 'fanaticism.' If 
any one can quote one sentence in my sermons, or 
books, or paper unscriptural and fanatical, I will thank 
him to do so. In fact, my health has never been bet- 
ter, head more level, and heart warmer than to-day, 
for which I thank God, take courage, and continue to 
press the battle in a 'spirit of love, of faith, and of a 
sound mind.^ 

"All who have any part in circulating these reports 
are deceived. Our readers are warned against 'false 
witnesses,' which God has declared 'shall perish.' 'Thou 
shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand 



228 A He:ro of Faith and Praye:r. 

with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. (Ex. 
xxiii, I.) 

"While we forgive all these things from the bot- 
tom of our hearts, yet at the same time we feel that 
we should warn our readers that they be on their guard, 
and not hindered in their prayers for us and their co- 
operation in this work. 

"Victory Assure^d. 

"Early in my ministry the Lord gave me the first 
chapter of Jeremiah in a special manner. Many of its 
promises have already been verified ; others are finding 
their fulfillment. Verses 17, 18, and 19 just at this 
time are being brought to pass. I am determined to 
fulfill the commission in that chapter, proving the vir- 
tue of the eighteenth verse and claiming the victory of 
the nineteenth. 

" 'Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and 
speak unto them all that I command thee : be not dis- 
mayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them. For 
behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, and 
an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, 
against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, 
against the priests thereof, and against the people of 
the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they 
shall not prevail against thee : for I am with thee, saith 
the lyord, to deliver thee.' 

"Promisks Proved. 

"The false reports which are being circulated against 
us give us an occasion to prove the preciousness of the 
promise : 

" 'Blessed are they which are persecuted for right- 
eousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 



Li^^ o^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 229 

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and perse- 
cute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you 
falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: 
for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted 
they the prophets which were before you.' (Matt, v, 
10-12.) 

"We have the consciousness that we are right in 
God's sight. He commands us to proclaim His full 
gospel, and never accepts any substitutes for it. Woe 
unto us if we do not teach Bible holiness and its ap- 
plication, not only to heart, but to the life, and to busi- 
ness, and to' the Church. It is a source of great com- 
fort to know that when 'falsely accused,' Bible sanc- 
tification enables its possessor 'to rejoice and be exceed- 
ing glad.' Our prayer is that God will bless those who 
curse us, and do good to them who hate, despitefully 
use, and persecute us. 

"The Improved Name. 

"When God- leads in little things, as well as great, 
He delights to comfort and assure those who follow 
by revealing reasons. The following are among the 
reasons for substituting 'God' for 'The' in the heading 
of the Revivalist : 

"It gives Him the pre-eminence due Him as propri- 
etor of the paper. 

"It is in harmony with the teaching of the Word, 
which declares that God's ministers are ambassadors of 
Christ, preaching in His stead. 

"The aim of the Revivalist is to help God's interests, 
and feed, protect, and edify God's people of every name. 
We design that nothing shall enter into the paper but 
what meets with His approval. 'In His name' we are 



230 A He:ro of Faith and Prayi:r. 

commissioned to do the work of a gospel minister, and 
we rejoice that through His grace we have been enabled 
to become a member of His family, share His unpopu- 
larity here on earth, confess Him boldly before men, 
with His promise of sustenance and protection here 
and of eternal reward hereafter. 

"This name does not imply that it Is the only paper 
which is God's, no more than the fact that you, reader, 
claim to be God's man or God's woman indicates that 
no other person is. Nor does its name indicate that 
we claim for it infallibility any more than the fact that 
God's Church bearing His name indicates that it is in- 
fallible, or that God's people bearing His name indicates 
that they are free from infirmities. 

"Under this improved name the Revivalist aims to 
be God's paper, by God's servants, for God's people. We 
feel assured that the Proprietor of the paper whispered 
this change to us. If it strikes you a little strange at 
first, talk the matter over with Him. 

"Re:vivaIv FaiTh]PuIvNi:ss. 

"In order to have Scriptural revivals, there must be 
fidelity to Scripture truth. It is impossible to have a 
Holy Ghost revival without obedience to the Holy 
Ghost as Supreme Leader. If we change His plans 
and specifications, we become responsible for the wreck- 
age that follows. The Revivalist head which appeared 
in the first issue of this year is an illustration of this. 
The artist had been instructed just what kind of a head 
to make. He thought he could improve upon original 
instructions by making a number of changes, some of 
which appeared in that week's head, but which were 
not accepted nor in keeping with the original plan, which 
appears in this week's issue; hence that work all had 



Ivii^]^ oi^ Ri:v. M. W. Knapp. 231 

to be done over again, and the plan as given followed. 
The reason for so much revival work that is useless, and 
which the Holy Ghost is compelled to condemn and 
have done over again by others, is because they are not 
following original Bible instructions. Moses followed 
fully the pattern given him upon the Mount, or he would 
have lost his position or wrecked God's work. The 
awful condition of Churches on every hand is caused 
largely by ignoring the instructions of the Supreme 
Head of the Church in regard to separation from the 
world, regenerated membership, and sanctified leader- 
ship. Men, wise in their own conceits, have ignored 
these instructions, and hence their work is vain, and 
must be done over again by others. Follow fully the 
Word of God, and whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. 

"Characte:ristics 01^ God's Church. 

''The following are some of the characteristics of 
God's Church as clearly revealed in the New Testament : 

"It is a visible body, composed of regenerated be- 
lievers. 

''Its Head is invisible, Jesus Christ in heaven. 

"Its General Superintendent is invisible, the Holy 
Ghost. 

"Its Constitution is visible, the Word of God, as in- 
terpreted by Spirit-baptized, Spirit-illuminated teachers. 

"Its Executive is visible, a sanctified officiary. 

"It is only to such a Church as above described 
that the Holy Ghost adds daily those being saved. 
Worldly Churches are built up of unconverted Church- 
joiners, instead of accessions of truly-converted people 
by the Holy Ghost. 

"God's Church guards jealously its doors, and only 
those meeting the Bible conditions of regeneration are 



232 -^ Hkro o^ Faith and Praykr. 

welcomed. All truly converted people may be known 
by the following marks : 

''They have repented of all sin, and demonstrate their 
repentance 

"By godly sorrow for it. 

"By confession of it. 

"By forsaking of it. 

"By restitution. 

"By faith in Jesus for its forgiveness. 

"They have the witness of the Spirit to their adop- 
tion in God's family, and maintain the Spirit of Christ 
in their Hfe and walk, are led by the Spirit of God, and 
'hunger and thirst for righteousness.' 

"No person should be received or retained as a mem- 
ber who does not meet these tests. It is to be hoped 
that in the formation of independent Holiness Churches 
these basal principles of the Word of God will be 
recognized." 

I find among the material sent me an answer written 
by the editor, apparently, of the Pittsburg Advocate, or 
one page of it. Probably nobody could have said more 
on that side. The two arguments are thus given side by 
side: 

"The Rev. M. W. Knapp versus Methodism. 

"Dear Brother, — Permit me to point out certain in- 
congruous matters in the manifesto with which you have 
been pleased to favor the members of Conference: 

"First. You deny or rather disclaim any 'hardness' 
towards the Church, or any 'selfish motives' in with- 
drawing from the Church ; but claim that (in No. i) 
it is 'God's will,' and in No. 14 that now you have 'solid, 
sweet assurance that God so led.' 



Li^e: o^ Raw. M. W. Knai*p. 2^^ 

*^But, my brother, your arraignment betrays 'hard- 
ness' throughout. Of your motives I may not judge ; 
but if it really is 'God's will/ then it is also 'God's will' 
that we all leave the Church ; for surely you do not 
claim any special dispensation of separation. I could 
hardly credit you with the supreme egotism which ar- 
rogates to yourself that ; but what I desire to know is 
if you are the saints whose standard and influence is es- 
sential to the Church's recovery, how do you justify 
leaving her ; and if all the saints leave, where would 
the Church be? 

"In 2 you say, 'It is inconsistent to remain a member 
of a denomination and not act with it,' and 'My life is 
so given to undenominational work I have no time for 
outside' (that is, denominational or Church) work. So 
you renounce all denominations alike, and refuse to 
act with any. Question : Will you allow the denomina- 
tions to purchase and use your books? Am I to under- 
stand that, from purely unselfish motives, you will, from 
this on, distribute your books wholly outside the 
Churches ? 

"In 3 to 10 you charge Methodism with 'complicity 
with the liquor-traffic,' 'awful conformity to the world,' 
a 'travesty on original Christianity,' and as ignoring 
the necessity of the work of the Holy Ghost in 'regen- 
eration' as 'power from on high' etc. ; also as being in 
general in alliance with so-called 'holiness fighters,' 'fra- 
ternities,' and that her 'Churches' are spiritual 'ice- 
houses,' and characterize it as a 'sinking ship.' 

"You are nothing if not vivid ; but in this case you 
are betrayed into luridness ; the colors are all strong, 
and blend to blind one as to your real meaning. When 
the landscape is blurred, there is something the matter 
with the lens. This wholesale and indiscriminate ar- 



234 



A Hero o:? Faith and Prayer. 



ralgnment is evidently the result of your own distorted 
mental and unspiritual outlook. Xove believeth all 
things and hopeth all things ;' prejudice believeth noth- 
ing, and is in despair of everything; and there is no 
arguing with that mixed-motive condition into which 
prejudice places a man. The man himself has no rea- 
sons with which to combat his own prejudices. The 
prejudiced man thinks he is a 'saint/ when, in fact, he 
is a most grievous sinner. Fanaticism is that which re- 
sults from ill-balanced views of religious truth or duty. 
Is it not barely possible that your views are a little 
mixed? To deny that possibility is to classify yourself. 

''Now, the most ardent Methodist will not contend 
that Alethodism, as represented by the membership at 
large, is as spiritual as she ought to be. Its most faith- 
ful ones deplore its low spirituality where it exists more 
than its critics. Neither was the Church of Rome, 'called 
to be saints,' all the apostle wished. She was admon- 
ished to 'follow after the things that make for peace,' 
and to 'bear the infirmities of the weak.' That of Cor- 
inth was 'sanctified in Christ Jesus,^ yet Paul lamented 
that they were 'carnal and babes in Christ,' and feared 
'lest there be debates, strifes, backbiting, and that he 
should even 'bewail many that have not repented of the 
lasciviousness which they have committed.' So Hkewise 
of all the New Testament Churches. 

"I ask. Is it not a little singular that in no case do 
the apostles refer these early Christians in so many 
words back to Pentecost? and, in the light of your ex- 
perience, that the disappointed apostle never once hints 
at the idea of withdrawing himself from the Church? 

"Now, my Brother Knapp, you must know, espe- 
cially as a believer in the undenominational Church, that 
those in the Methodist Episcopal 'denomination,' or any 



Li^e: o^ Rhv. M. W. Knapp. 235 

other, who have 'not the spirit of Christ are none of 
His,' and therefore they do not constitute the true 
Church. But you know, also, that there are thousands 
and tens of thousands in this great denomination who 
are as truly 'born again' and 'sanctified' as yourself; and 
they are to be found both in the ministry and member- 
ship. 

"To deny this will be to stultify your common sense and 
impugn your right J' 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LEANING HARD ON GOD AND PERSECUTED 
FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE. 

**I could not do without Thee, 

Savior of the lost ! 

Whose precious blood redeemed me 

At such tremendous cost. 
Thy righteousness, Thy pardon, 

Thy precious blood, must be 
My only hope and comfort, 

My glory and my plea ! 

I could not do without Thee ! 

1 can not stand alone, 

I have no strength or goodness, 

No wisdom of my own ; 
But Thou, beloved Savior, 

Art all in all to me ; 
And weakness will be power, 

If leaning hard on Thee." — F. R. HavergAL. 

When our "Hero of Faith and Prayer" first entered 
the ministry, a father in Israel said to him : 'Xean hard 
on God, brother; lean hard on God." From that hour 
it seemed to be one of the rules of his Hfe. He did 
not even try to go without God. He lived and walked 
and talked and worked as if consciously in the presence 
of, and overshadowed by, the Unseen. He continually 
said by his manner, and often with his lips : 

"But Thou, beloved Savior, 
Art all in all to me." 
236 




M. W. Knapp. 



hi^Tt oi^ Ri^v. M. W. Knapp. 237 

And thus, conscious of his weakness, he ''leaned 
hard on God," and was ''clothed with His everlasting 
strength." 

In connection with his Bible-school our brother 
started a missionary movement. The sympathies of 
his heart were big enough to take in all the world for 
whom Christ died. When he had been in the ministry 
but a few years, he offered himself to Bishop William 
Taylor to go as a foreign missionary. He was refused 
because he had had a sunstroke, that was a serious 
drawback to his health. It will be remembered he was 
healed of this when he was sanctified. But his interest 
in the salvation of the heathen never waned. He felt 
to the end that he must go or send, and, being denied 
the privilege of going in person, he gladly laid the con- 
version of the heathen upon his heart. In the day of his 
influence and power he did not forget the parting charge 
of Jesus to "go and disciple the nations." 

A fund was started for foreign missions, which has 
grown to more than $8,000. Missionaries have been 
sent with this money to Africa and India and Japan ; and 
others in the Bible-school are training for the foreign 
field. 

Brother Knapp's last book came before the public 
this same year, 1901, which was so crowded with stir- 
ring events in this stirring and overcrowded life. Its 
title was "Holiness Triumphant; or. Pearls from Pat- 
mos." In its twenty-two chapters, one for each chapter 
of the Book of Revelation, the author dwelt lovingly on 
the triumph of his Lord and His glorious return in His 
kingdom to carry on the reign of holiness in this earth. 

The author's own heart was fast letting go of the 
things of time, and ripening for the eternal world. He 
had diligently set his mind on the things that are above ; 



238 A Hkro Q-e- Faith and Prayer. 

for his life was hid with Christ in God. He was improv- 
ing his hours to lay aside the habihments of earth and 
put on the raiment of heaven. Seven thousand copies 
of this book have been published. 

I attended the Holiness Convention which met in 
Chicago, in May, 1901, just one year ago. About the 
close of the week, Thursday, Brother Knapp arrived. 
The moment my eyes fell upon him a shock of pain went 
through me. He looked five years older than when I 
saw him less than a year before. There was the stamp 
of unceasing weariness upon him, the look of a body 
overburdened and never rested. It was perfectly mani- 
fest that he was being crushed by his cares and tasks 
and the hard blows he was taking from every quarter. 
I could scarcely refrain from expressing to him my anx- 
iety; but it is an ungracious task, and usually vain, to 
tell such a man how ill he looks from overwork. I took 
dinner with him in the home of dear Brother Seth Rees, 
after which we stepped out on the street and parted, 
he to take one street-car line, and I another. It was our 
last meeting on earth. 

He hastened back to his school in Cincinnati, I to 
mine in Texas ; after which came the summer camp- 
meetings in which we both were engaged. The next 
I heard he was arrested because of the disturbing noise 
made by his camp-meeting on Mount of Blessings. Cin- 
cinnati is such a quiet little city ! Never any brawls, nor 
parades, nor mobs, nor strikes ; nothing to ever break 
its solemn, funereal stillness ! The noise of people seek- 
ing God and finding Him and getting sanctified and 
shouting about it until ten o'clock at night was too 
much for people unused to such late hours and wholly 
unaccustomed to noise and excitement ! Brother Knapp 
was arrested for it — one of the quietest men in the Ho- 



Lii^K o^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 239 

liness Movement. ''Blessed are they that are perse- 
cuted for righteousness' sake." 

They complained that a cornet was used with the 
singing ; and that the songs kept ringing in their ears ; 
and that they could hear the people calling on God to 
send down the Holy Ghost fire; and people would rise 
from the altar and shout "Hallelujah!" until it could 
be heard clear across the street. The staid and sober- 
minded Cincinnatians, unused to cornets, and hallelu- 
jahs, and prayers for Holy Ghost fire, and religious 
songs they could not forget, would not endure such a 
disturbance.. One Elijah B. Coombe, a sober-minded 
Presbyterian, swore out a warrant against ''one M. W. 
Knapp" "for disturbing the peace of the city," and had 
him tried before "the Police Court of the city of Cin- 
cinnati." We will omit all the testimony of the opposing 
witnesses, and will give the testimony of Knapp and his 
witnesses, the plea of the lawyer, and the rendering of 
the judge, with Knapp's comment on the same. 



M. W. Knapp, being duly sworn, testified as follows : 



Direct Examination. 

By Mr. Heath.— 

Q. Mr. Knapp, state to the Court what your profes- 
sion is, what your life-work is, and what work you have 
been engaged in, in this city, within the last year? 

A. I am a minister of the gospel, and my life-work 
is soul-winning, soul-saving, with my pen and my voice. 
I have done what I could to preach righteousness, and 
lead people into experiences that would keep them out 
of places like this. 



240 A He:ro of Faith and PrayKR. 

Q. How long have you been engaged in that sort 
of work ? A. Over twenty years. 

Q. You have been a minister of the gospel over 
twenty years ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You say you have used your pen as well as your 
voice? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Describe to the Court what sort of meetings you 
have had upon the hill here in this city. What sort of 
meetings you had on the loth day of July? A. Meetings 
that we call a camp-meeting, in which the truths of a 
full gospel were preached, and in which the effects which 
the Scripture says will follow the full preaching of the 
gospel would be manifest : the Word of God declared, 
putting men under conviction so that they would be 
pained at their sins, as James expressed it to the wealthy 
men of his time, "Weep and howl, ye rich men, for the 
miseries that are coming on you;'^ we preach that 
gospel. 

Q. You were preaching that on the loth of July? 
A. I did not preach at all on the loth of July. 

Q. Were you in charge of the services on the loth 
of July? A. My recollection is that I was not. 

Q. What kind of meeting was in progress on the 
loth of July on the Mount of Blessings, or God's Taber- 
nacle, or God's Bible-school? A. The usual camp-meet- 
ing. 

Q. How long does the usual camp-meeting last? 
A. Beginning at six o'clock in the morning with a prayer 
service, that is followed by a Bible service; another 
service at ten o'clock, followed by one at 2.30 in the 
afternoon ; the evening service begins at seven, closing 
in the neighborhood of ten o'clock. 

Q. It is the usual evangelical service, an effort at 
making bad people good, which the Court takes judicial 



IvIi^e: 01^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 241 

cognizance of, ^nd which we all know of in all Chris- 
tian societies? A. Such as the old-time Methodists call 
an old-time Methodist meeting. 

Q. You mean it was projected on the nature of 
Pentecost? A. It was the same kind of preaching that 
precipitated the great revival of Pentecost. 

Q. How long does the camp-meeting last? A. It is 
a ten-day meeting. We have had it yearly for three 
years. 

Q. Is there any purpose to have it oftener than ten 
days in a year ? A. I think not ; no, sir. 

Q. Who composed the people at this camp-meeting? 
A. They were representative Christians from various 
denominations, fifteen to twenty. 

Q. Near and far? A. Near and far, United States 
and Canada. 

Q. How many people did you have at that camp- 
meeting? A. It was estimated fifteen hundred an aver- 
age attendance. 

Q. Fifteen hundred average attendance for ten days ? 
Mr. Knapp, explain to the Court what you know, what 
you authorized, if anything, of howling and terrific per- 
formances up there. A. I authorized nothing but the 
preaching of the gospel that produced Pentecost, Pen- 
tecostal experience. 

Q. You take your gospel out of the New Testament 
and the Old one, do you? A. Certainly. 

Q. And that is what you preach? A. Certainly. 

Q. Did you ever authorize anything else to be 
preached? A. No, sir. 

Q. Was there any noise out in the street, outside 
of your premises, Mr. Knapp? A. There was. 

Q. Was there a crowd there? A. There was at 
times. 
16 



242 A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

Q. Was there as large a crowd in the streets as in 
the Tabernacle? A. I think not. 

Q. Did you have any such performance — one of the 
witnesses said it was something like a circus — did you 
have any such hippodrome or circus there as caused 
a need for the police of the city to preserve the order? 
A. It might seem like disorder to people who, like the 
Pharisees of old, criticise Pentecost ; they claimed they 
were drunk on new wine then. 

Q. You mean to say it was just a difference in bases, 
that if the man had been ethically cultivated and morally 
cultivated and religiously cultivated he would not have 
considered it disorder? A. There are a great many wit- 
nesses so believe. 

Q. I want you to make it plain to us, was there 
anything done by your authority on the premises of 
God's Bible-school, or in God's Tabernacle, that was 
indecent, or immoral, or calculated to produce violation 
of the law, or disturbance? A. Quite to the contrary. 
I advised all our people to be obedient to the law. There 
were some things on the 4th of July I did not approve, 
done contrary to my approval and against my instruc- 
tions. 

Q. Tell the Court all about the 4th of July [a street 
meeting]? A. I know very little of it; only what I 
heard. 

Q. It was not authorized by you, or one of your 
authorized Heutenants, and against your wish? A. It 
was done simply outside any instructions. 

Q. Was it done by your regular attendants or 
deacons? A. I was told it was not; it was done by a 
party from Columbus. 

Q. A perfect stranger to you ? A. Personally, a per- 



Life: oi? Rev. M. W. Knapp. 243 

son such if I had known he would not have been al- 
lowed to speak. 

Q. He was simply irresponsible in his utterance, and 
made some remarks out on the street; where was it? 
A. I understand on the corner of the street. 

Q. This man made some utterances which, when they 
were reported to you, you condemned? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You had singing up there ; tell the Court about it. 
A. Yes, sir; there was singing. 

Q. Singing and playing? A. Singing and playing, 
testimony. 

Q. Are, you conversant with the neighbors about 
there? A. Not as much as I would like to be. 

Q. Have you had any of your people visit among 
them. A. They have. 

Q. Do you know their opinion? A. Something of it. 

Q. As far as you know, what is the opinion of the 
people who reside there within two or three squares? 
A. There are two classes of people ; one class of people 
are not in sympathy with us, another class enjoy the 
meetings ; as there always is where the gospel is 
preached, it makes a division; one side with it, the 
other against it. 

Q. You know nothing more in this case than this 
fact, there is a division of the people amongst men; 
some men are for Christ, and some against Him ; is that 
about the size of it ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. If you know anything you did July the loth, or 
any other day, or any of your connections on the hill- 
top, which was disorderly, or tended to incite other peo- 
ple to be disorderly, tell the Court what it was. A. I 
know none. I endeavor as a minister of the gospel 
humbly to preach the gospel. I know of no disorder; 



244 ^ Hkro 01^ Faith and Praykr. 

if I were under conviction for anything it would be for 
not shouting enough. I am the quietest one, I suppose, 
in the whole business. 

Q. Are these people in front of you some of your 
people? A. I recognize some of them. 

Q. Mr. Weigele there one of yours? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. (Indicating.) Is this man one of your people? 
A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You recognize a number of these people? A. 
Yes, sir. 

Q. Is this little Japan man one of your people? A. 
Yes, sir; he is one of the trophies of Japan. 

Q. You have representatives with you from the four 
quarters of the earth, and from all over our broad land. 
If you know one of this company of people, or any one 
who was up on that mount who made any disturbance, 
or incited others to violate the law or become disorderly, 
tell us about it. A. I know of none. I heard of no 
complaints until after the meetings were over ; if I had, 
I would have tried to correct them if possible, the same 
as I did about the ringing of the bell. 

Q. Were you ever appealed to to remedy any little 
grievance any one had that you did not promptly apply 
all your influence to correct it ? A. No, sir. 

Q. Tell the Court about the ringing of the large bell. 
A. Mr. Daniels called upon me, and stated the ringing 
of the bell was an annoyance to the neighbors, some 
of whom were up very late in the night, and wished to 
sleep in the morning. As there was no principle at 
stake, I changed the big bell to a little bell. We are 
not there to annoy people, but to do them all the good 
we can. 

Q. That is your principle? A. That is the rule of 
my life. 



hiJ^H OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 245 

Q. That is the rule you impress upon all your follow- 
ers? A. Yes, sir; our usual time for retiring at night 
is 9.30 during the school year. 

Q. And that occupies what portion of the year rela- 
tive to the camp-meeting? A. About nine months of 
the year. 

Q. Tell His Honor how long the meetings were kept 
open during this ten days of annual camp-meeting. A. 
My instructions were to close at 9.30, if possible; very 
often the altar was full of people praying and seeking 
God, and it could n't be done without injuring the work. 

Q. In those instances how long did you continue 
the praying and order of service? A. As a rule till 
ten o'clock ; one night in particular the opening was 
hindered by heavy wind, the beginning was late, the ser- 
mon was long, it was eleven o'clock that night; that 
was an exceptional night. 

Q. An exceptional night, and no night later than 
eleven o'clock? A. So far as I know. 

Cross-examination. 

By Mr. Holmes. — 

Q. You are a Christian minister? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. A disciple of the Universal Catholic Church? 
A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Of whom the Apostle Paul was the chief ex- 
pounder? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Is it not a fact part of his injunctions were to 
obey the constituted authorities ? A. Wherein they did 
not conflict with the higher law. 

Q. In that one direction the Pauline Epistles teach 
you to obey those in authority over you? A. Yes, sir; 
that must be taken in connection with the context. 



246 A Hero of Faith and Praye:r. 

O. You have been a minister how long? A. Over 
twenty years. 

Q. You have never been arrested before? A. No, 
sir. 

Q. Charged with crime ? A. No, sir. 

Q. You never came in contact with the civil law? 
A. No, sir. 

Q. Or the criminal law? A. No, sir. 

Q. You have never stood before charged with any 
kind of ofifense? A. No, sir. 

Q. Did Mr. Coombe come to you and make com- 
plaint of these affairs before the arrest was made? A. 
He did not; if he had, if I could I would have 
remedied it. 

Q. You were not there the loth of July? A. I can 
not recollect the order of that day; my recollection is 
I did not lead. 

Q. The 4th of July, how did that occur? A. With- 
out my knowledge, and to my regret, a party went out 
on the corner and began holding a meeting. 

Q. Would you have permitted anything of a disturb- 
ance of the peace ? A. I would not have permitted any 
meeting without a suitable leader attending to the meet- 
ing. 

Q. Have you ever been notified by the Police De- 
partment of the city there was tumult, noise, disorder, 
and disturbance there at your place? A. At the camp- 
meeting? 

Q. Yes. A. No, sir; I was not, not at the camp- 
meeting. 

Q. Had you been so notified, would you have en- 
deavored to comply with whatever orders the police 
officers would have given you? A. Yes, sir. [If not 
contrary to Divine requirements. — K.] 



Li]?i: oi^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



247 



Q. Is your work equally open to the poor and lowly 
as to the rich and high? A. All classes. 

Q. If you make a distinction, is it to save the poor 
and outcast ? A. We make a specialty of them. 

O. The friendless? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Something after the work of the Salvation Army 
here? A. That is part of our work. 

Q. You have never been notified you were disturb- 
ing the peace? A. Never in connection with this case. 

Witness excused. 

Miss Mary Storey, 

being duly sworn, testified in behalf of the defendant, 
as follows : 

Direct Examination. 

By Mr. Heath.— 

Q. You are an old resident of Cincinnati. A. Yes, 
sir. 

Q. How long have you been here? A. Twenty-one 
years. 

Q. Will you tell the Court what your life's work and 
duty is? A. I am an evangelist. 

Q. A lady evangelist ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Where have you been engaged, Miss Storey? 
A. All over Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Vir- 
ginia, different places. 

Q. And in Cincinnati? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And in the towns about Cincinnati ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Latterly were you related to Mr. Knapp in his 
movement on the Mount of Blessings? A. Yes, sir; I 
have known Brother Knapp since he has been in the 
city. I have known all about his work since he has 
been in the city. 



248 A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

Q. Were you present at God's Tabernacle on the 
loth of July? A. I was through the meetings entirely. 
I have not left it yet. 

Q. You were there then, and have been in the meet- 
ings ever since? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You have heard them sing ''A Hot Time in the 
Old Town;'^ did you have a hot time on the loth of 
July? A. I did not hear that song. 

Q. Did you have a hot time? A. We had Holy 
Ghost fire. 

Q. At that time you were present and had Holy 
Ghost fire up on the Mount of Blessings? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Was Mr. Knapp in charge? A. He was not in 
charge. 

Q. Was there any disorder incited by Mr. Knapp, 
as far as you know? A. No, sir. 

Q. Did anybody, for the matter of that, incite any 
disorder the loth of July? A. Nothing, only the holy 
joy. I shout myself when I can't help it. 

Q. Then it comes like the wind, like the Spirit, it 
comes like itself? A. The Lord says when we get filled 
with the Spirit it is a fountain within you, springs, rivers 
of water. 

Q. You believe and have believed, a number of you 
believe and live the belief, that there is such a thing 
as Holy Ghost fire, and it comes down? A. Yes ; I have 
enjoyed the experience for nearly twenty years. 

Q. Whom do you labor for the benefit of? A. 
Everybody, rich and poor, high and low, black and 
white. 

Q. Rich and poor, high and low, black and white — 
rich retired merchants and poor people in the gutter? 
A. Yes, sir. 



LiFi: OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 249 

Q. But the effort of your whole labor is the uplifting 
of the race? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. That is what you were doing on the loth of 
July? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. That is what all the people, all you know, were 
doing up there ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Have you any other principle in life? A. I have 
no other principle, occupation, or ambition in Hfe. 

Q. The needier the sinner, the more moved your 
hearts are and the greater your efforts to save ? A. Yes, 
sir. 

Cross-examination. 

By Mr. Holmes. — 

Q. Miss Storey, you are an educated and talented 
woman. I believe I have known you about fifteen 
years ? A. Yes, I think you have. 

Q. You were at one time the manager of a depart- 
ment store, a large store, receiving a large salary? A. 
Yes, sir. 

Q. You have given that all up, renounced making 
money for the kind of work you are in? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You are not engaged in a disturbance of any 
kind? A. No, sir. 

Q. You are not engaged in making money, fooling 
the people making money ? A. No, sir ; I have no bank 
account. 

Q. All these years I have known you, you have had 
a helping hand for the poor? A. You know that. 

Q. You were never under arrest ? A. No, sir. 

Q. You have not done anything to create a disturb- 
ance of the peace? A. No, sir. 



250 A H^Ro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

Q. You were present July the loth? A. I was 
through all the meetings. 

Q. What kind of a disturbance was there ? A. There 
was not any ; I thought it was glorious. 

Q. Was there any circus ? A. I have never been to 
a circus in my life. I could n't tell what a circus is. 

Q. You have been to many and many a home of 
suffering? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And sickness, and never received a cent for your 
services? A. O yes; I get free-will offerings in my 
work. 

Q. Instead of laying up money, you give your life 
and services for the poor and lowly? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And have never been arrested? A. No, sir. 

By the Court.— 

Q. Were you present at the Tabernacle the day when 
all this money was given? A. Yes, sir; I was on the 
platform. 

Q. How much money was given that day, do you 
know? A. I could n't positively say. 

Q. I read in the paper, you being an eye-witness 
kindly tell me what transpired that day? A. It would 
be a very difficult thing for me to do. 

Q. So much as you saw? A. I saw the people give 
willingly, gladly, and sometimes doubled up, say they 
wanted to give more ; the Lord had told them to put 
another cipher to the one hundred they had given ; some 
called out two and three and four and five hundred dol- 
lars ; everybody gave gladly. 

Q. Do you know what sum was realized? A. Some- 
wheres between $25,000 and $30,000, I think. 

Q. Between. $25,000 and $30,000? A. Now, I would 
not be certain; I never looked at the figures; I never 
asked. 



Ivi^i: o^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



251 



Q. Who gets this money? A. It goes to pay for 
the place, the improvements on it. 

Q. In whose name is that piece of property? A. In 
the name of God's Bible-school. 

Q. Who is God's Bible-school, who is the repre- 
sentative? A. Brother Knapp is the superintendent 
of it. 

Q. And at this meeting there was between $25,000 
and $30,000 taken in up there? A. I think somewhere 
about that, between $20,000 and $30,000. 

Q. Did the ladies give their earrings? A. I never 
saw any. 

Q. Watches and chains? A. I did not give any. 
I do not wear any, any earrings. I heard there was 
some jewelry, not much. 

Q. That was just placed at Mr. Knapp's disposition 
and in his care, and he takes charge of it, is that it? 
A. I suppose so, he is responsible for paying the bills. 

Q. He pays the bills? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. He has to see to getting the funds and paying 
the bills ? A. Yes, sir ; he has always had it given him, 
he has always had the money for every bill, demand 
presented. 

Mr. Heath. — Is Mr. Knapp the trustee for the Bible- 
school? A. He is the trustee. 

By Mr. Holmes.— 

Q. You are a regular organization? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. So no one handling this money has any indi- 
vidual good or use of it? A. No, sir. 

Q. It is for the use of your association and organiza- 
tion? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. The same as money given to any other Church 
or any other organization? A. Certainly. 

Witness excused. 



252 A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

J. B. Martin, 

being duly sworn, testified in behalf of the defendant, 
as follows : 

Direct Examination. 

By Mr. Heath.— 

Q. Tell the Court, if you know, if you were in at- 
tendance on the Mount of Blessings on the loth of July, 
what was carried on there; if you are intimately ac- 
quainted with the meetings there, please explain to the 
Court what they are, what their course is, what their 
purpose and intention is, as far as you know? A, Yes, 
I was in attendance at all the meetings ; that is, I was 
in attendance every day, and I do not remember that 
I missed any meeting, any regularly-appointed meeting, 
and was also over night several times ; I am interested 
in the movement myself, and am a supporter of it. 

Q. And you are the same Mr. Martin who was with 
the old Gazette Company, and later a restaurateur and 
railroad man ? A. Yes, I was ten years with the Gazette 
Company. 

Q. You say you are interested in the movement and 
a supporter? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. A supporter by personal presence and worship? 
A. A supporter by my presence more or less, and by 
my financial help. 

Q. On the loth day of July, were you present at 
that meeting? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Was there any disturbance there? A. None 
whatever. 

Q. Did M. W. Knapp incite any disturbance, so far 
as you know? A. None whatever. 

Q. Was M. W. Knapp in charge of the meeting? 



Lii^e: 01^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



253 



A. He was not in charge of the services; that is, not 
especially ; Mr. Rees was more directly in charge. 

O. The Quaker Evangelist Rees? A. Yes, sir; Mr. 
Knapp was mainly engaged with the business matters 
around ; he did n't take part in the meeting very much. 

Q. Explain to His Honor what relation Mr. Knapp 
financially sustains to God's Tabernacle? A. Mr. 
Knapp is simply the trustee ; of course, all such organiza- 
tions have some one to transact their business. 

Q. Has he ever claimed individually any single penny 
of this money ? A. Not a penny. 

Q. And, takes no remuneration from any contribu- 
tion the supporters of the movement make? A. None 
whatever. 

Q. The contributions are made for what purpose? 
A. Simply for the promotion of the work there. 

Q. What is that ? A. The study of the Bible. 

Q. Preparing missionaries for foreign lands? A. 
Preparing missionaries for foreign lands and home 
fields. 

Q. You know nothing of anybody on the hill incit- 
ing to disorder on the loth of July? A. Not one. 

Q. At any time have you seen any disorder? A. I 
remember several times of complimenting the police 
officer for the decorum preserved all around; the only 
disturbance was in the street, outside of the property 
altogether. 

Q. Tell us about that if you were there and know it. 
A. I remember the night I staid there I was kept awake 
quite a length of time by the noise in the street. 

Q. Was that done by your people? A. No, sir; by 
the neighbors themselves. 

Q. Were they congregated? A. They marched up 
and down the street, making all sorts of noise, imitat- 



254 ^ Hero o^ Faith axd Prayer. 

ing those, they shouted ''Glory to God!" and ''Halle- 
lujah !" They were right under the windows of the peo- 
ple ; they would hear them, they would not hear us ; we 
were perfectly quiet. 

Q. Relatively, what volume of noise did the people 
in the street make compared with those on the inside? 
A. They were making nearly all the noise a good part 
of the time. 

Q. How long would you keep your meetings open? 
A. Ten days the first call. 

0. In the night time, what was the usual experience 
as to the closing of the meeting? A. 9.30 we tried to 
close, sometimes as the altar was full of people praying 
earnestly for pardon we did n't get through ; they would 
continue praying until ten o'clock. 

Q. The crowd in the street would keep up the noise 
later than that ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. After the people of the Mount had retired? A. 
Yes, sir. 

Q. Did they make as much noise probably as the 
people in the worship of God? A. A good deal more 
at times. 

Q. Those were the people congregated there ap- 
parently for the purpose of making sport of the re- 
hgious people, were they? A. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Heath's Argument. 

Mr. Heath's argument, in part, was as follows : 
May it please the Court, the Honorable Prosecutor, 
who, with skill and dignity, has faithfully and con- 
scientiously discharged the official duty laid upon him, 
deems it unnecessary to argue this case, and I shall feel 
justified in speaking only a few words. 

Rev. M. W. Knapp might with implicit confidence 



hi'^t OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. * 2S5 

rely on the testimony of Elijah Coombe himself for his 
acquittal and dismissal. 

Your Honor's Court, graced by the presence of 
Judge Howard Ferris, of the Probate Court of Hamilton 
County, on the bench beside you, and by the presence 
of His Honor, Mayor Fleischmann, is glorified by this 
day's proceeding, not exactly, I beheve, as it was in- 
tended. 

This man comes before Your Honor in response to 
the strong hand of the law, drawn here to answer" for 
a charge that, as I see it, is not sustained by one iota 
of testimony. No witness says that M. W. Knapp on 
the loth of July was creating any disorder; and if it was 
the purpose to make him responsible for everybody on 
the hill for a continuous period of time, there is not a 
particle of evidence here that Mr. Knapp incited any- 
body else to make disorder, or that he himself made any 
disorder. And after all that can be said, and all that 
has been said, the case is simply the old case which 
has rung down the ages. Your Honor: the difference 
between men's opinion — the holy ardor that some people 
feel; that Divine afflatus which comes into the human 
soul, which makes one man leap, like Brother Weigele, 
and wreathes Sister Mary Storey's face with a smile, and 
makes her voice ring out with what she calls holy joy, — 
that is something which I can't pretend to describe, 
but of which Your Honor will know, and which many 
of these people standing about are interested in and do 
know ; that moves men to go out and devote their lives 
to the Five Points and the slums to-day; that which 
aids Chief Deitsch and his whole army of law con- 
servators here ; that which lifts people up, so that Your 
Honor's labors are lightened, so that our prisons are 
emptied, and we are reHeved of our burden of taxes — 



256 A Hero oe P'aith and Prayer. 

these people are moved by that power, and do this sort 
of thing, and have done it ever since Jesus Christ com- 
missioned them to go and do it. There are men, exer- 
cising the right of American citizens, who scoff at it, 
and wall have nothing to do with that sort of thing. 
Nevertheless, with equal rights for all, these men have 
sought, as the evidence shows, and as Mr. Knapp's voice 
has testified, to do only that which Mr. Coombe himself 
says he would like to have done — that is, make men, 
women, and children better and purer, and therefore 
more law-abiding. 

Now, I would not for a moment suppose that Mr. 
Coombe intended, in this heated term, to throw Your 
Honoris Court, and the whole city of Cincinnati, and the 
whole State of Ohio, and the whole United States, 
who have all heard of this celebrated case of Mr. 
Coombe bringing Rev. AI. W. Knapp into the Police 
Court of Cincinnati — a place where the rapid-fire bat- 
tery which the law has provided, through Your Honor, 
dispenses justice instantly and immensely — into a re- 
ligious ferment. Your Honor would not want to do 
it any more than the Honorable Prosecutor, or myself, 
or Mr. Knapp, or any of the noble people following 
him, would want to do it — to make any disturbance in 
the community, to make any heated discussion, to excite 
any religious antagonisms here whatever. If there had 
been anything wrong done. Your Honor, Chief Deitsch, 
and the men he instructs and commands, if anybody had 
made a disturbance, would have put their hands on him 
and stopped him. Nothing of that kind is in the evi- 
dence. It was disclosed in the evidence — that which the 
Court will take cognizance of — that there was a poHce- 
man in there, and that Mr. Martin could and did com- 
pliment him on the beautiful order preserved. 



LiFK oi^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



'^^1 



Your Honor and I might not be able to coincide 
with these people in the holy ecstasy they experience. 
Women like Miss Storey and Bessie Queen, and men 
like Mr. Weigele and Mr. Knapp, get down on their 
knees and implore the King of kings for the Divine 
power, and believe and feel to the bottom of their being 
that they are clothed upon with the power God Him- 
self gives, and which in its essence is God. If I have 
never had that experience, I am not able to stand here 
and deny that blessing has been vouchsafed to those 
who claim to have it. And in claiming to have it, if 
they do nothing worse than lift up the fallen and make 
rescue homes, I say. Godspeed them in the work ! 

It would almost seem from the evidence and the 
method of this procedure that an attempt is made to 
array this Court against a Bible-school and religious 
movement, an efifort put forth to cause a strident blow 
to smite the beam of the scales of justice, and throw 
them out of equipoise, so as to declare the right to be 
wrong. I can not believe that Your Honor would your- 
self strike or permit such a blow to be struck. 

The whole evidence discloses that neither the statute 
of the State, nor the ordinance of Cincinnati based on 
it, have been violated by Rev. M. W. Knapp, as charged 
in the affidavit of Elijah Coombe. 

It is true, a rancorous bawl was made by ''certain 
lewd fellows of the baser sort," in derision and mockery 
of enthusiastic religious people who were on their own 
premises, worshiping, in meetings usually closed at 9.30, 
and once only out of the total of ten meetings continuing 
until eleven P. M., while the street in front of God's 
Tabernacle was filled with a noisy, mocking throng until 
after Mr. Knapp's followers had become silent and re- 
tired to sleep. For these no warrant is sworn out ! 
17 



258 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

The evidence bristles with surprises. It is, in the 
minds of some, "a disturbing noise" to praise God with 
a loud voice, as the manner of some is ; but by the 
same people a very healthy and enjoyable ''noise" when 
the street is filled by people come together for the pur- 
pose of mockery and in violation of law, to disturb a re- 
ligious meeting. 

To look upon the faces indicating the character of 
Elijah Coombe and the witnesses produced by him, and 
contrast them with the face of M. W. Knapp and the 
men and women who appeared with him and as wit- 
nesses in his defense, certainly would not, by any rule 
of estimation, prove other than flattering to Mr. Knapp 
and his associates ; and that look is decisive. The differ- 
ence between the spirit exhibited and the testimony 
given in support of this affidavit and effort of Elijah 
Coombe, and the spirit of M. W. Knapp and the testi- 
mony of witnesses in his defense, is the difference be- 
tween heaven and hell, between civil and religious lib- 
erty and murderous anarchy. The spirit of this man 
Knapp and his witnesses was clean, and that spirit evi- 
dently was the spirit of truth and benevolence, and so 
characterized and marked their faces as to make them 
shine like the face of John's angel in the sun. 

What is it Elijah Coombe and his advisers expect 
by swearing out this warrant? Were they expecting 
that some mysterious spirit evoked by whispering 
tongues of gossip and lies would threaten and terrify 
Rev. M. W. Knapp and his associate Christians without 
regard to denominational distinction, so that they would 
put their hands on their mouths, and their mouths in the 
dust, before these assailants, and consent to be declared 
a nuisance, and driven from their ''Mount of Blessings?" 
What arrogance ! What presumption ! Since when has 



Lii^E OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 25c 

it been possible in Cincinnati, Ohio, that this illegal 
thing, sought to be done in an illegal way, could meet 
with the sanction of any court ? It is not possible, it 
will not be possible until civil liberty is dead. 

The best citizens — Catholics and Protestants, Jews, 
Agnostic, and Christian Scientist, rich and poor, white 
and black, the most learned, and those less learned, the 
letter and spirit of our law, all bid them God-speed in 
their good work. I do not believe that any court can 
be found which would dare, on any such application as 
that here made, supported by such evidence as is here 
adduced, do anything else but dismiss this case, and bid 
the good work of M. W. Knapp and his associates God- 
speed. 

I believe the Court will dismiss this man, who says : 
*'I wish to do nothing unlawful ; I never wish to do any- 
thing that would militate against the right of any other 
citizen." If Your Honor sends him out scot free, as 
we demand he shall be acquitted of any wrong purpose 
or intent, I undertake to say no man will more heartily 
join Your Honor and Chief Deitsch and every policeman 
in the city in trying to abate every nuisance and every 
irritating cause, and in making men, women, and chil- 
dren better, than he. So I ask Your Honor to decide 
that this man shall stand forth acquitted, and be per- 
mitted to go on with his good work. 

Decision of the Court. 

I want to say, Mr. Knapp, some months ago, when 
you started your school on Prospect Hill, it was hailed 
with delight by everybody in the neighborhood; and 
up to the time of your revival you had the good wishes 
and the good will of everybody up there. Since, these 
complaints came in about the excessive noise made in 



26o A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

the tabernacle and on the premises ; and when I say 
noise, I speak of the noise as it is defined by our ordi- 
nance, which reads, "It shall be unlawful for any per- 
son or persons to make any noise, disorder, or tumult 
to the disturbance of the peace of the city." I want to 
say a number of children who attended your Sabbath- 
school have been withdrawn on account of the com- 
plaints about the noise you made there during the last 
week. 

I want also to say to you, I do not think anywhere 
in the great city of Cincinnati you could have found a 
better place for your very commendable work other than 
Prospect Hill; but the testimony here this morning, 
and the names of seventy residents in the neighborhood, 
say there was disorder, say there was noise, say there 
was excessive noise. Now, it is anything but a pleas- 
ant job to sit here and say whether that noise was such a 
noise as should be punished, and whether there was dis- 
order — I v/on't say disorder, I will say there was noise, 
and such noise as disturbed the neighbors. j\Ir. Coombe 
has lived on that hill a great number of years. This 
is the first time of my knowledge — and I have known 
him twenty-five years — he has ever meddled with the 
courts ; and Mr. Coombe and the neighbors on that hill 
have rights the same as you have rights, and you must 
use your rights so they won't conflict with the rights 
of Mr. Coombe and the other sixty-nine people that 
signed that petition. I am informed since the case was 
brought, when I requested you to close your meetings 
at nine o'clock, that has been done. Is that right, Mr. 
Coombe ? 

Mr. Coombe. — Yes, sir. 

All the people up there will be glad to have you 
there^ will be glad to keep you there on this condition. 



Ln^i: OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 261 

that their sleep and their disposition are not disturbed. 
Now, I think you can look after that. 

The matter that took place on the 4th of July, when 
I was present — I won't say what it was. Yes, I will 
tell you now what it was. One of your people — I do 
not know his name — a young man of twenty-seven or 
twenty-eight years, said something I thought horrible. 
He thanked God, God had saved him from a drunkard's 
grave, and went on to tell how kind God was to him to 
save him, and to let him see the errors of his w^ays. 
That was all right. Then he said his father was a 
drunkard, 'his sister was in a house of ill-fame. Here 
were fifty children and any number of women standing 
there. I thought it was awful. If my sister was there, 
instead of preaching to others, I would save my sister 
first. 

Mr. Knapp. — That party was unauthorized. 

The Court. — He was standing up like several others, 
dressed hke the others, standing with half a dozen 
women. I took that to be an awful thing, and I walked 
away. That was not the proper thing to say in the 
presence of a lot of women and children. 

I trust in the future there will be no further dis- 
turbance. I know this man, and there is not a man 
who would sooner shake hands with you, and to whom 
you could sooner go for a donation than Air. Coombe ; 
and I do not think there is any man who is a better 
Christian than Mr. Coombe. He has been a Presby- 
terian all his life. What he objects to, when night comes, 
he wants to sleep. He can command the city authorities 
that its officers maintain quiet, so that his sleep and the 
sleep of his neighbors will not be disturbed. 

I find Mr. Knapp guilty, and fine him the costs. The 
costs will be remitted. 



262 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

The above and foregoing is all of the decision of the 
Court. 

The Court having found M. W. Knapp guilty, de- 
fendant, within three days, filed a motion for a new trial ; 
but the Court overruled the same, and rendered judg- 
ment, as appears of record, to the overruHng of which 
motion and the rendering of said judgment defendant 
excepted, and now comes and tenders this his bill of 
exceptions, which, having been submitted to Court, as 
required by statute, is allowed, signed, sealed, and or- 
dered to be made part of the record this day of , 

A. D. 1901. Wm. H. Lueders, 

Judge of the Police Court, 
Hamilton County, O. 

Editorial Comments. 

The following are some of the real facts in this case : 

The full gospel was preached at Salvation Park 

Camp, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 

and, as is always the case, the following results were 

produced : 

People were pricked to the heart and awakened. 
They became restless and uneasy. They were disposed 
to attribute their restless condition to the ministry or 
the surroundings, or the demonstrations in connection 
with the services, instead of the fact that the Holy 
Spirit was showing them their real condition, their real 
peril, and their need of salvation. One of the com- 
plainants said that it was not so much the noise as the 
songs and the prayers that would keep coming up in his 
mind and awaken him in the night. The terrors of the 
law, the awfulness and reality of future punishment, 
the certainty and solemnity of coming judgment, the 
damning nature of sin — all combine to produce such 



LiFi^ OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



263 



I 



I 



conviction that people frequently break out in tears, and 
moan, and even scream at their awful peril. As James 
declares, they ''weep and howl because of the miseries 
that are coming upon them." This occurred at the 
meeting complained of. 

The preaching of a full gospel not only brings con- 
viction, but it brings rejoicing. When the assurance 
comes that sins are all forgiven, weeping gives place to 
rejoicing. When Christ triumphantly entered Jerusa- 
lem, and the Pharisees rebuked the people for their up- 
roarious shouting, Jesus declared that the stones them- 
selves wo-uld cry out if the people should hold their 
peace. If such expressions of rejoicing were Divinely 
indorsed when Jesus entered Jerusalem, much more 
must they meet His approval when such exclamations 
arise from spiritual temples in which He comes to reign. 

The baptism with the Holy Ghost moves to vocal 
demonstrations. When the people were baptized with 
the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, their demonstrations were 
so uproarious that onlookers accused them of being 
drunk on new wine ; and their shouts of joy and glad- 
ness were such as to bring the whole city out to their 
services, and many were converted. The revival serv- 
ices that accompanied the apostles, as recorded in Acts, 
were of such a nature that v/hen they came into a new 
place proclaiming the teachings of the New Testament, 
it was said of them that they ''turned the world upside 
down" also. This was repeated at Salvation Park. 

Ezra iii, 12, 13, concerning the dedication of the tem- 
ple, reads : "But many of the priests and Levites and 
chief of the fathers who were ancient men, who had seen 
the first house, when the foundation of this house was 
laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice ; and 
many shouted aloud for joy; so that the people 



264 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

could not discern the noise of the shout of joy 
from the noise of the weeping of the people; for 
the people shouted with a loud shout, and the 
noise was heard afar off." If such demonstrations 
at the dedication of a material temple were ap- 
proved of God, how much more must he not ap- 
prove of outbursts of joy and praise when individuals 
throw open the doors of the temple in their hearts to 
the incoming of the Holy Ghost, to be His, and His 
alone, forever. 

While during this camp-meeting on the Mount of 
Blessings there was some noise of the rabble on the out- 
side, and doubtless some counterfeit noise in connection 
with the real demonstration of the Spirit within, yet the 
great volume of sound so sorely objected to was born 
of God; and any decision which makes it ''disorderly" 
places it on a par with the reveling of saloons and beer 
gardens and the drunken brawls of the street. Any de- 
cision which does this is a menace to liberty and con- 
trary to the spirit of both civil and gospel law. 

The Golden Rule. — To the objection that such dem- 
onstrations are a violation of the Golden Rule, we an- 
swer that, instead of being a violation, it is simply an 
exercise of it. If we were being rocked in the cradle 
of false security, unsaved and exposed to the perils of 
a broken law and neglected salvation, we would want 
some agency to wake us up at any cost. Better the loss 
of a few hours' sleep now than the loss of the soul 
forever. 

Vindicated. — We have the assurance of complete 
vindication of the charge of "disorderly conduct^' be- 
fore the great white judgment throne, when the "Judge. 
of all the earth" will "do right." However, the unjust 
judgment is on trial at the bar of public opinion, and will 



. Life of* Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 265 

be heard at the Court of Common Pleas, where a right- 
eous reversal is anticipated. 

Interests Involved. — In the meantime, let all of our 
readers pray for the parties to this wrong, that God 
may help them to see their error, and do what they can 
to rectify it. Personally, the Editor of the Revivalist 
would joyously suffer the reproach attached to the un- 
just finding, and can, as Jesus commands, "rejoice and 
be exceeding glad" through it all. The matter, however, 
has gone to proportions far beyond any individual. The 
interests of a mighty movement, and of God's people 
of every name, are menaced; and the battle is being 
fought in the name of God Himself and of His people 
of every name. 

Two Kinds of Peace. — The charge that the peace of 
the neighborhood was disturbed by us, in an evil sense, 
is untrue. Only noises and disturbances that are con- 
trary to the good of humanity and the well-being of 
a community can properly be called disturbers of the 
peace. The gospel of Jesus Christ disturbs the peace 
of people who are not at peace with God, but not in the 
bad sense referred to. Jesus Christ declared that He 
''came not to send peace, but a sword;" and the Word 
declares that "there is no peace to the wicked." Such 
meetings as were held at Salvation Park, and such min- 
istry as that of Christ's ambassador, who was charged 
with breaking the peace of the community, in a bad 
sense, do disturb the false peace that unsaved people 
are resting securely in, in order that they make their 
peace with God, and that their peace may be "like a 
river," and their righteousness as the waves of the sea. 
A loyal army patriotically pressing the interests of its 
government among its enemies might, with as much evi- 
dence, be called disturbers of the real peace of the 



266 A Hkro ot' Faith and Prayer. 

country, as we the disturbers of the real peace of Chris- 
tian citizenship. 

Appeal a Christian's Privilege. — When Paul was de- 
nied justice at home, he appealed to Csesar, giving a 
striking New Testament precedent for God's ministers 
in every age when denied their rights in lower courts to 
appeal to higher ones. 

Our Counsel. — Our trust is solely in God. He is our 
Counsel, and the Bible is our defense. Because we 
stated this, and then employed legal counsel, we have 
been criticised by one of the papers of the city. The 
criticism is not well taken. The Bible teaches that "in 
a multitude of counselors there is safety;" and it is both 
sense and gospel to improve all available light, and 
use all needed means to defend the truth. This we are 
doing. When Solomon, Divinely directed, listened to 
the counselors God chose for him, both he and the king- 
dom were blessed. 

Pray. — We feel that the spirit of liberty and toler- 
ance contained in the Constitution of the United States 
and laws of the State of Ohio and the gospel liberty 
conferred by the Son of God upon all His true min- 
isters, demand the appeal be made from a decision which 
brands the ''noise" which is the fruitage of the preach- 
ing of a full gospel as ''disorderly conduct," and con- 
victs an innocent man contrary to evidence. We ask 
all the readers of this paper to pray that God's will in 
the matter may be done, that the mistake made may be, 
as far as possible, rectified, God glorified, humanity 
blessed, and the kingdom of heaven thereby advanced. 

Others Guilty. — Much of the noise complained of 
during the meeting was by scoffers on the street, who 
mocked the demonstrations of God's people, not only 
disturbing the residents, but the worshipers themselves. 



Life of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 267 

It doubtless was mistaken by people at a distance for 
a part of the noise of the meeting. 

A Blow at Religious Liberty. — The mistaken finding 
in this case is a blow at religious liberty. It places a 
threatening club over every gospel meeting that would 
compel gospel workers to modify their efforts to save 
the lost to suit the whims of captious critics rather than 
the needs of the cause and the Spirit and the Word of 
God. 

Loyalty to Authorities. — Civil and religious author- 
ity must be maintained. Executors of the law may make 
mistakes, which higher courts must correct; but they 
must be respected in their offices. It is only when hu- 
man laws conflict with the Divine law that an exception 
is to be made. In such case the higher claim of the 
King and kingdom must come first, or the violator be- 
come the subject of the frown of the ''J^dge of all the 
earth." 

Lawlessness Encouraged. — One effect of the de- 
cision in question is that it encourages the lawless ele- 
ment. The evening following the publication of the re- 
sult of the trial, there was more impudence and defiance 
than ever. When a perversion of government oppresses 
the sacred office and work of a gospel minister and 
characterizes Pentecostal demonstrations as "disorderly 
conduct," Satan is pleased, lawlessness is encouraged, 
and justice weeps. 

Two Noises. — The failure to distinguish between 
legitimate noise, such as is produced by the preaching 
of the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven, such as characterized our meeting here, and 
illegitimate noises, which come from demoralizing 
sources, is to be deplored by every Christian and every 
citizen; for it arraigns virtue at the criminal bar by the 



268 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

side of vice. No government can retain God's smile 
and favor and do this. 

Inimical to Righteousness. — The findings in this case 
are directly antagonistic to righteousness. The great 
aim and object of our meeting was to induce people to 
give up sin and unrighteousness, and to live soberly and 
righteously in this present world, as God commands 
and the law requires. Any mistaken action of the 
powers that be that would tend to degrade the con- 
servators of such a movement militates against right- 
eousness itself. Any finding which degrades an effort 
leading to the salvation of multitudes of people, as Sal- 
vation Park Camp did, as "disorderly conduct," is in- 
imical to righteousness and good citizenship, and should 
be corrected. 

A Weak Complaint. — The objection that demonstra- 
tions in a revival campaign should cease (which is 
equivalent to the meetings themselves ceasing) on ac- 
count of sickness in the neighborhood is neither sensible 
nor Scriptural. During the days and weeks at Pente- 
cost, when religious demonstration was at a white heat, 
and thousands were converted, there must have been 
those who were ill in the neighborhood; and there is 
no record of the meetings being adjourned on that ac- 
count. A hundr-ed-fold better that a sick person be re- 
moved to quieter quarters than that a great work of 
God, with multitudes being saved, should be stopped. 
Armies do not stop fighting because cannonading gives 
some one the headache. No notice of any sick person 
suffering on account of the meetings, however, was re- 
ported to the management. 

A Significant Fact. — To the objection that just as 
much good might be done in quiet meetings there is the 
answer and the fact that Cincinnati is full of quiet meet- 



k 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 269 

ings, with few or no people being saved in them ; while 
in only a few days of a meeting in which there was gos- 
pel liberty on these lines, multitudes were converted and 
baptized with the Holy Ghost. 

Decrease of Property Valuation. — Reports that the 
meetings lessened the value of property in the neighbor- 
hood were freely circulated, yet prosecution failed to 
show that in any instance tenants had moved or rents 
decreased ; while the fact is that it is difficult to find 
rentable property in the immediate vicinity. The fact is 
there are many people with whom such institutions 
greatly increase the value of property. Even if this were 
true, is that any reason why honest, earnest efforts to 
save souls from sin and death and hell should be aban- 
doned? 

A Noisy Dedication. — ''But many of the priests and 
Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men 
that had seen the first house, when the foundation of 
this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud 
voice ; and many shouted aloud for joy ; so that the peo- 
ple could not discern the noise of the shouts of joy 
from the noise of weeping of the people ; for the people 
shouted with a great shout and the noise was heard 
afar ofif." (Ezra iii, 12, 13.) 

There is no record of anybody circulating a restrain- 
ing petition in connection with this "noisy" meeting. 

Items of Interest. 

God has wonderfully blessed our work and workers, 
having sent from among us Brother and Sister Hirst to 
open up the work in Africa. They will be joined in a few 
months by five more. On the 4th of July one man 
pledged $2,500 to this department. 



270 



A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 



In Japan the fire is constantly falling, an average of 
ten being saved each day. The work is growing so 
rapidly that they will be compelled to enlarge very soon. 
Little any one would have thought that quiet Brother 
and Sister Cowman should be so used of God. 

Dark India's cry has reached the hearts of some of 
our students, and about August ist a party of five will 
sail to carry the precious gospel to her. 

Our work is constantly growing. Plans are now 
being made for a girl's dormitory. With the completion 
of this building, we will be able to better push our 
rescue work. 

A $2,050 Seal. — The night before the trial God 
further sealed His blessing, by a friend giving the work 
$2,050 in cash, placed in the hands of Brother Knapp. 

The arrest, trial, and judgment have brought to us 
friends that we never knew of from all over the United 
States. Thus God "makes the wrath of man to praise 
Him.'^ 

The services were mocked by the unsaved crowds 
on the street. They little dreamed of the awful sword 
of God's Word, ''I will mock at your calamity, I will 
laugh when your fear cometh," just poised over their 
heads. 

In Good Company. — During all the trial we knew 
we were in good company, because we were in the line 
of John Wesley, St. Paul, Knox, Luther, George Fox ; 
but above all, because God says you shall have "fathers 
and mothers and sisters and brothers, houses and lands 
in this life with persecutions," and this was being ful- 
filled. 

In Bad Company. — The opposing elements are in 
the company of evil men, who, like the rich Pharisees 
of old, think to lay hands on God's work. But they will 



Lif-'E OP Rev. M. W. Knapp, 271 

find in the day of reckoning that it is an awful thing 
to break God's command, ''Touch not Mine elect, and 
do My prophets no harm." 

Free-will Service. — The workers here are all giving 
their time, without remuneration, to God's work, seek- 
ing the lost, binding up the wounded, praying for and 
encouraging the weak and helpless, just because the 
'love of God constrains them." They trust Him to 
supply their every need, and He does it. 

Heaven Rejoicing. — ''There is joy in heaven over 
one sinner that repenteth." What must it be now? The 
bells all ringing, the harps playing, the songs of joy and 
praise filling all the courts of heaven and re-echoing in 
the hearts of the saved, because not of one sinner ''re- 
penting" but many at Salvation Park Camp. 

A WoRivD-wiDK Movement. 

The movement upon the "Mount of Blessings" is 
not a private nor local enterprise, but the center of a 
world-wide work, its supporters being over the United 
States and abroad, with representatives in Africa and 
Japan, and about sailing to India. While its light and 
fire can but prove a benediction locally to all who will 
welcome it, yet its greater influence is far beyond all 
local lines, and the results which flow from it are elec- 
trifying, not only to the city of Cincinnati, but belt the 
entire globe. We believe, notwithstanding the dissent- 
ing petition that was circulated, that a majority of the 
earnest, thinking people in the vicinity of the "Mount 
of Blessings" would patiently put up with any little an- 
noyance that may come from the noise attending the 
meetings, rather than throw a pebble in the way of 
such a work. 

One of our neighbors just called, stating that neither 



^72 A He:ro o^ Faith and Prayer. 

she nor her husband had been disturbed in the least by 
the meetings, but were grieved at the opposition to 
them. 

A Blkssing to Cincinnati. 

The following are among a few of the ways in which 
the Mount of Blessings, with its Bible-school and Mis- 
sionary-training Home and Salvation Park Camp-meet- 
ing, is already proving a blessing to Cincinnati : 

It has redeemed a piece of property which might 
have been utilized for purposes hostile to society, and 
is utilizing it for the upbuilding of humanity, both at 
home and abroad. 

It is bringing many people of good character and 
soul-winning gifts into a city which needs them. 

It is planning rescue work, which in this city is sadly 
neglected, there being but one mission for that pur- 
pose here. 

It is giving the city Conventions and park meetings 
of untold value, affording people of limited means and 
people who can not take time to leave the city the 
advantages of a great camp-meeting right at hand, 
blessings that have been received and welcomed by 
thousands of people. 

It has already brought a number of people into its 
own vicinity who have rented rooms that otherwise 
might have been vacant, and others are coming. 

It is leading people continually into experiences 
which cause them to give up sin and lives of iniquity, 
and live as good Christians and good citizens should. 

It increases the valuation of all property in its vicin- 
ity with people who welcome New Testament religion, 
such as is described in the Gospels and the Acts of 
the Apostles, which see. 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



273 



It is already awakening multitudes of people whom 
Satan has been rocking to sleep in the cradle of false 
security, and pointing them to the Lamb of God who 
taketh away the sin of the world. Some wake up mad. 
Later they will be glad. 

It has already proved a blessing, not only to Cincin- 
nati and the home land, but is reaching Japan and Africa 
and India. 

It has brought hundreds of good people here, whose 
presence has not only been a spiritual blessing, but 
whose patronage has been helpful to business interests. 

Above ,all, multitudes of souls have been saved and 
baptized with the Holy Ghost through its influence. 

In view of these and other facts that might be named, 
there is evidence that many who do not agree with all 
of its peculiarities are glad to exercise a spirit of kind 
toleration. 

Victory Assured. 

When earthly courts determine unjust and afiflictive 
findings, then God's people are ''more than conquerors." 
They rejoice — 

(a) Because they are permitted to sufifer for right- 
eousness' sake. 

(b) Because they are in good company — that of the 
prophets, apostles, and Jesus Himself; also of all who 
have been loyal to Him in all the ages. 

(c) Because ''great is their reward in the heavens." 

(d) Because they know that they will be fully vin- 
dicated, and their persecutors, if impenitent, punished at 
the final judgment. 



18 



CHAPTER XVII. 
NEARING HOME. 

** O for a light from heaven 
Clear and divine, 
Now on the paths before me 
Brightly to shine ! 

O for a hand to beckon ! 

O for a voice to say, 
Follow in firm assurance, — 

This is the way ! 

Listening to mingling voices, 

Seeking a guiding hand, 
Watching for light from heaven, 

Waiting, I stand. 

Onward and homeward pressing. 

Nothing my feet would stay, 
Might I but plainly hear it, 

' This is the way!' " 

Others did not see it until afterwards ; but in all 
these months after that trial until the end, the great 
soul stood listening for the voices and ''watching for 
light from heaven." He had caught some foregleams 
of the coming glory. "Onward and homeward press- 
ing," constantly conscious that he was drawing nearer 
his King, he did not care to linger on tardy feet. The 
candle of his life was burning all too swiftly and brightly 
in its socket. Eternity was pressing upon him — "just 
behind the thin veil of things visible, already Hfting, dis- 
solving." The gleam of the palaces of immortality were 
piercing through. Visions of eternal glory were break- 

274 




Anna. John Franklin. I^ucy Elizabeth. 



Lii?K OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 275 

ing around him. The ''ever-haunting splendors" of the 
city that hath foundations broke upon his eye of faith; 
and he tightened the girdle of his loins, the latchet of 
his sandals, and, like an earnest racer for glory, forgot 
the things that were behind, and pressed toward the 
goal. 

Fortunately for us now, one of his own converts and 
helpers was with him, watching him with sympathetic 
eyes and grateful affection during these eventful days. 
God gave him and his wife dear "Bessie" to comfort 
and help them. God gave her a gifted pen to tell us 
of the closing scenes as follows : 

"The Last Communion. 

"It was a Sabbath morning service. The congrega- 
tion had been singing and praying without any special 
manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Brother Knapp began 
reading the story of the crucifixion, and as He read on 
and on of the cruel scourging of Christ, His being 
buffeted and spit upon and mocked, the Holy Ghost fell 
upon him and melted him all down, and he was so filled 
with emotion that he could scarcely read. As he came 
to the climax and told of the wonderful love of Jesus, 
there came over the congregation such a power and 
unction as we had never before witnessed. It must have 
been like the day of Pentecost, when they were all with 
one accord in the upper room, and the Holy Ghost came. 
From one end of the congregation to the other, with the 
exception of two people, every one was weeping. Many 
sobbed aloud. Mr. Knapp himself also could not utter 
one word ; but just sat there with shining eyes and 
streaming tears. Handkerchiefs were waved, and, like 
the murmur of the waves of the sea, the subdued ex- 
clamations of 'Glory to God !' and 'Amen,' sounded. 



276 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

''When he could command his voice, Mr. Knapp just 
quietly said, 'If there are any here who want to find 
this wonderful -salvation, who want to taste what it is 
to go alone with Jesus, who are willing to take the cross, 
to go with Him to Calvary, to crucifixion, anywhere, 
come now.' He had scarcely finished uttering the words 
when, without any singing, or any urging, a number 
rushed to the altar, until there must have been twelve 
of fifteen. Without any instructions (they were so 
broken up, and the Holy Ghost had such control), they 
began crying out to God to have mercy on them and 
save or sanctify them, and many of them came through 
shouting. Mr. Knapp and others often said that they 
had never been in such a service. None of us have 
been in such a meeting before or since. None of us 
dreamed, that sunshiny morning, as we stood there in 
that room that just seemed full of the presence of God, 
that it was the last communion we should ever take 
with Mr. Knapp here. It always seems to me that it 
must have been something like that Last Supper, that 
night in Jerusalem, when our Lord gathered with His 
disciples for the last time, as He gave them the cup 
and said, 'But I say unto you, I will drink no more 
of the fruit of this vine until the day when I drink it 
new with you in My Father's kingdom.' It was wonder- 
ful. The solemnity and peace of that hour has come into 
lives never to be lost, and on the streets of gold we 
expect to meet souls who were born into the kingdom 
that morning. 

"God gave him such a wonderful love for the boys 
and the girls in the school. Both he and Sister Knapp 
were like a father and mother to each of us. He was 
never too busy, never too weary, to hear a confession 



LiFi: OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



277 



or the story of some one who had been wronged, or 
to rejoice with some one who had gained the victory, 
or to pray with some one who was weary or discouraged. 
Many and many a time, as I sat working in the office, 
I was asked to leave the room on account of students 
coming in who wanted to talk to him alone. They 
brought to him their sorrows, their temptations, their 
burdens, their joys, and their blessings, and he was al- 
ways ready and glad to hear them. Many a boy and 
girl will go out from the Bible-school strong in the 
Lord because of words of counsel and guidance that he 
gave in hours of temptation and weakness. He loved 
them ever}^ one as if they were his own children, and 
always spoke of them as 'our girls' and 'our boys.' 
Many a time have I seen him bow his head as he sat 
at the desk, and heard him say, 'The Lord bless the 
boys ; the Lord bless the girls !' Many and many a time, 
when there would come letters from those who were 
out in the cold Churches' where they received no help, 
he would bow his head on the desk, and would pray : 
'O Lord, keep the boys and girls true. Set them on 
fire to preach Thy gospel to the uttermost parts of the 
earth.' (God is wonderfully answering that prayer now.) 
Once when he was very weary some one said to him : 
'Brother Knapp, why do n't you have a certain stated 
time to see the boys and girls, and not permit them 
to break in on you just any time they desire? In this 
way you will not tire yourself so much, and will have 
more time for the great amount of work that is wait- 
ing your attention.' With a rare, radiant smile, and a 
flash of the eye, he looked the speaker in the face and 
said, 'Ah, but if I did that the tempter might have 
gained the victory over some soul in the meantime, when 
God might have used me to have given them one word 



278 A Hkro 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

that would have helped, and strengthened, and en- 
couraged them.' Never again did I hear any one sug- 
gest to him that the boys and girls should not come 
in at any time ; that he was so engaged that it was im- 
possible to see them. 

"One evening, when a friend who loved him much, 
saw that he was so weary and worn, he reasoned with 
him and said, 'Brother Knapp, you ought to call some 
one else to come in and let him help the students, and 
set you free from that kind of work.' He leaned his 
head on the desk for a few moments, then looked up, 

with eyes full of tears, and said: ''Brother , for 

three or four years before God led to this Bible-school 
I prayed that He would save, sanctify, and call the boys 
and girls to the fields, and use them in winning souls 
to Himself. I prayed that, somewhere, through some 
one. He would establish a Bible-school where a full sal- 
vation should be taught, and 'the Word and the Holy 
Ghost have right of Avay. I never thought then that 
the work was going to come to me ; but God whispered, 
"You are the man;" and would I be true to my trust 
if I should allow some one else to come in and deal 
with the souls God has put in my hands? I love these 
boys and girls ; I expect them to carry the glad tidings 
to the uttermost parts of the earth. When I meet Jesus 
in the air, I expect to see some of them from India, 
from Africa, from Japan, and from the islands of the 
sea, with the souls God has given them from their 
countries ; and O, what a time that will be ! What 
difference does it make if we are tired here, and weary? 
The day is coming when we shall never be tired any 
more, but shall walk and talk in the presence of Jesus, 
and will be satisfied.' By the time he got through talk- 



Li^K oi^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 279 

ing, the friend who made the suggestion was crying, 
and Mr. Knapp too, and the Holy Ghost put such a hush 
and solemnity in all our hearts. We little thought, 
either of us, in listening to him that evening, that only 
a few short weeks and he would be walking the streets 
of gold. Of course he would have 'no regrets' then ; for 
the past would all be clear. 

"The Rescue Home. 

"There was no part of the work that ever lay closer 
Mr. Knapp's heart than the rescue work. As the girls 
of the school would visit the hospital, and meet these 
fallen sisters, and hear their stories, and come to him 
and talk about them, he would weep and pray and ask 
God to speedily send the Rescue Home, and send the 
workers so that we might gather them in, I know 
that he was deeply interested in their salvation, and 
his heart yearned to give them a chance to find the 
Savior. He did not condemn and censure ; he had only 
the pity and love of Christ. But I never knew to what 
extent it was until last summer. Both Sister Knapp and 
himself were away. One evening I was called into the 
dining-room to meet a girl. They did not tell me who 
it was nor what was the trouble. There stood a young 
girl, about twenty-two years old, hungry and weary, her 
hair disheveled, her face and hands soiled, and in her 
arms a tiny, wee baby, its dress dirty, and the little 
wrinkled face looked as if it already knew what deep 
privation and sorrow were. In answer to my inquiries, 
the girl said that for three years she had been engaged 
to a young man. He had a position, and claimed to 
be laying by all of his wages in order to be able to 
furnish a little home for them both. She worked and 
saved, expecting to put her share to it also, in the 



28o A Hero of Faith and Praye:r. 

meantime loving him, and clinging to him, and looking 
forward to the time when she should be with him as 
his own wife. But there came a day when he persuaded 
her to yield to temptation, and then came the story 
of deception and wrong. Now he was gone, leaving 
her to face the disgrace and sorrow alone, crushed in 
heart and soul, with no knowledge of the Savior, no 
Jesus to whom she could carry her burdens and sor- 
rows. The mother would not allow her to come home. 
She was turned out to do for herself, and the whole 
night before, and all day, carrying that little one in her 
arms, she had walked the streets of Cincinnati, know- 
ing no one to whom she could go for help, and not a 
mouthful of food. God allowed one of the workers in 
our Home to find her and invite her to corne up here. 
Gladly the girls who were then in the house took her 
case in hand, gave her food and a good warm bath, and 
put her to bed, and helped take care of her little one. 
Later that evening, as one of the students went into the 
room, she found her by the bed, sobbing as if her heart 
was breaking. She asked her gently what was the mat- 
ter, but received no reply. The girl kept on crying, 
and the very fountains of her soul were broken up. 
When pressed for the reason, she said, 'This is the first 
time that any one has ever been kind to me.' Think of 
that, reader! Twenty-two years old, and the first time 
any one had ever been kind to her ! We kept her sev- 
eral days, and Mr. Knapp returned home. Picking the 
little one up in my arms, I went upstairs to the office. 
I shall never forget his face as I told him the story. 
It must have resembled the face of Jesus, when he 
looked upon the woman taken in adultery and said : 
'Daughter, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven 
thee. Go and sin no more.' With a look of ineffable 



Lii^E OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 281 

tenderness he said, 'Go down and tell her we will do 
what we can for her for Jesus' sake/ 

''Again, another time, another young girl came to 
us who, when a baby, had been given by her mother 
to friends. These being Catholic, she was sent to a 
Catholic parochial school; but her foster parents being 
poor and illiterate, and having children of their own, 
paid little attention to her. She was allowed to play 
out on the streets of evenings until long after night had 
come, and, of course, became acquainted with sin, and 
was old beyond her years. It was not long until she 
had gone .down, and when only fourteen had entered 
a life of shame. Coming to our meetings one evening, 
when the altar call was given she went forward, and 
said that she had confessed her sins and that Jesus had 
forgiven and saved her. Returning to us a day 
or two later, she said that, her parents being Cath- 
olic, she could not be a Christian and remain at 
home, and because she would not give up Jesus 
they had turned her out of doors. Mr. Knapp did 
not hesitate to take her in, and he said, 'We will 
love her and care for her, and make the best out 
of her that we can for God and souls.' She could 
not long stay in the white light of the Bible-school 
without feeling that she muct confess and clear up past 
wrongs ; so she came to Mr. Knapp, and confessed 
partly ; and instead of censuring her, his heart went out 
to her in great pity, and he said : 'She was only a child. 
Her influences were all bad. What could you expect?' 
He said that the omnipotent power of our Christ could 
transform and change her, and He could make her a 
flame of fire to carry the glad tidings to other hearts 
who had been beguiled into sin and wrong. But even 
though she was here in the Bible-school, where we 



282 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

could pray for and uphold her, she would let go her hold 
on God sometimes ; and some would feel as though 
they had dealt with her and prayed for her long enough ; 
but Mr. Knapp would always say when approached on 
the subject, 'His mercy is not limited, "His ear is not 
heavy that He can not hear, nor His arm shortened 
that He can not save," and we will hold her before the 
Throne.' Then he would talk with her and pray with 
her. When he was ill the last week he said: 'Be care- 
ful and look after , because the devil will try to 

tempt her. Hold her for Jesus, if possible.' When 
people would send us letters about other cases of this 
kind, he would Vi^eep over them and say : 'Suppose it was 
my Anna? We must do something for her because she 
is some moUier's daughter, some father's daughter.' 

"Revelation. 

"Of ali the books in the Bible none was to Mr. 
Knapp more precious than the Book of Revelation. He 
reveled in it. When the air was thick with the arrows 
of holiness fighters — those who misjudged and opposed 
him — he always was calmed and rested by reading 
Revelation. 'It made me strong,' he said, 'to face the 
world, the flesh, and the devil.' He dared to step out 
on the promises and trust God, and several times have 
I seen him cry over the verse, 'These are they who have 
come out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' 
If any one would talk to him about having a home 
and things to make life pleasant, he would* turn over 
and read to them about the home he was to have in 
the New Jerusalem. He loved to dwell on the presence 
of Jesus, and imagine that he could stand before the 
Throne on the sea of glass, and hear the chanting of 



Life of Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 283 

'Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty !' He would look 
up and say when reading that, 'Could any one be so 
foolish as to miss heaven, sell out the joys of eternal 
happiness for a few little baubles of this life?' 

"While in the Bible-school here he had only one 
room where he could be alone — his bedroom — and even 
there folks would come and talk to him, and people 
would sometimes say to him, 'Would you like to have 
a quiet home of your own. Brother Knapp ?' He would 
always answer, 'Glory to God, we are going to have 
a home, "a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." ', During the latter part of his life this love 
of Revelation increased, and 'Redeemed by the Blood,' 
was only written through the love throbbing in his own 
soul for the New Jerusalem. He talked so much about 
it that he made us hungry for heaven. The last sermon 
he ever preached in the tabernacle was from this book. 
He expected, if God spared him, to take up the whole 
book from Sabbath to Sabbath, as the Lord led; but 
three Sundays dater he was reveling in Revelation; he 
was walking the streets of gold and joining in the song 
himself. We all have a greater love for that book, and 
a more settled determination to meet him in heaven than 
ever before. He lived so close to the heart of God, and 
poured over His Word so much, and became so hungry 
for heaven, that the earthly fetters dropped off, and 
God just took him. Just a day or two before he be- 
came ill his mother said to him, 'Martin, what makes 
you work so hard, you are wearing yourself out.' He 
answered, 'Mother, zvhen I see preachers backsliding and 
Church members going to hell by the thousands, I feel as 
if I woidd like to pour out my life for God, and then go 
home and be with Him/ God gave gave him his wish, 
and allowed him to pour out his very life-blood for the 
cause he loved so well. 



284 ^ Hdro o:^ Faith and Prayer. 

"Up in He^aven. 

"A few weeks before Mr. Knapp was called home, 
the Lord gave one of the ofifice girls a song, 'Up in 
Heaven.' She had been praying that He would give 
her one piece for the new book, and He answered. 
Brother Knapp seemed greatly touched over the words, 
and urged her to pray down a tune. This was some- 
thing new for her; but he was so persistent in the re- 
quest that she kept praying about it, and one day came 
into the ofhce and said she believed the Lord had an- 
swered and given her the tune. He said, 'Sing a verse 
of it.' She sang, 

* Sometimes here the shadows fall, 

But in heaven, but in heaven, 
Sadness never comes at all, 

Up in heaven. Up in heaven ; 
Sorrow there can never stay, 
God shall wipe all tears away, 
O, I 'm going there to stay, 

Up'in heaven, Up in heaven.' 

(This verse was slightly rearranged afterwards.) 
When she finished singing he was looking at her with 
a look she will never forget. His eyes were wet with 
tears, and she could not understand why it should move 
him so. He told her brokenly that God had given the 
right tune for the piece. He spoke of the piece often 
afterwards, and seemed to love it, and a day or two 
before he passed away this sister came into the room 
and said, 'Brother Knapp, do you know me?' and he 
answered, 'Yes, you are the one that wrote "Up in 
Heaven." ' How blind we were ! No wonder he loved 
everything that had heaven in it ; for his weary feet were 
almost pressing upon its borders, and earth was slip- 
ping away from him forever. 



hi^Z OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 285 

"For Ai^rica. 

"Brother Knapp had a great love for the foreign 
fields. His heart seemed to yearn over them. It seemed 
to him, sometimes, almost as if he would have to fly 
and carry the messages of salvation himself. He was 
always so glad God had called Sister Finney, and prayed 
that she might be settled, established, and developed, 
and given the gift of winning souls before she should 
go to Africa, and God wonderfully answered in this 
respect. When Elizabeth, his sister-in-law, was called, 
he was greatly rejoiced, and praised God and said : 'I 
would give John, or Anna, or Lucy to the jungles of 
Africa or the burning sands of India, or any place, no 
matter how hard, that God wants them. I would be 
sure to meet them again in the air with the souls God 
had given them.' He felt, in sending Elizabeth and 
Sister Finney, as if he was sending his own children. 
He loved them and depended upon them. When hard 
questions came up and needed to be settled he would 
always say, 'Get Sister Finney and Elizabeth and let 
them go off somewhere and pray,' and he would urge 
them until they would pray the matter through. It 
seemed as though they were his right-hand workers ; 
and although they longed to go to Africa, and Sister 
Finney said it seemed as though 'her very soul would 
fly out of her body,' yet he did not feel that God's time 
had come until along in October. God had laid upon 
us a great burden for that country, that He would send 
forth laborers into His harvest-field, and call and equip 
others. One day Bessie came into the office, and as she 
came near his desk his head was buried in his hands ; 
but he raised his face and looked at her, and his eyes 
were shining with such a strange look, and they were 



286 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

wet. He said, throwing out his right hand, 'Bessie, 
God wants our girls in Africa.' She asked him what 
he meant. He answered and said: 'God's marching 
orders for Sister Finney and Elizabeth are at hand. 
He is nearly through with them in the Bible-school. 
I do not know why, but we must be getting them ready 
to go. I believe He wants them to farewell at the 
Christmas Convention.' Then, with a quick flash of 
countenance, he said, 'But O, we shall miss them ; they 
have been such a blessing and inspiration in our lives !' 
It was wonderful how God laid the burden of their going 
on Sister Knapp, and their tickets were purchased and 
everything pushed forward with great rapidity. It 
seemed almost strange that God's message should come 
so quick. Everything was arranged for their going be- 
fore he became ill. When giving directions before he 
died he said: 'Now I understand why God's command 
was so sudden. He wanted everything fixed so that 
there would be no delay, and the girls must go just 
the same if He takes me.' 

"Numbers of times, when he would ask Sister Knapp 
or Bessie if they did not feel that God wanted them to 
take a service in the tabernacle or hold meeting out- 
side somewhere, and they would hesitate from natural 
timidity, he would smile and say : 'God will have to take 
me ; then you two will walk with rapidity in His foot- 
steps. You will never be at your best for God until 
after He calls me. The burden and responsibility will 
drive you to your faces in a new sense, and you will 
have to bank on God where you now bank so much on 
me. You will then realize that the source of all strength 
is found only in Jesus.' And that has certainly proved 
true since his going. When the difficult problems come 



LiE'E OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 287 

up — problems that seem so hard to settle — we have to 
take them alone to the Lord and wait on Him. 



"Saturday Night. 

*'He was always so forgetful of self; no matter if 
he was weary, no matter if his head ached, if a soul 
could be reached he was satisfied. The Saturday before 
his illness he had a high fever during the day and an 
intense headache ; but he would pay no attention, and 
steadily worked on with no thought of self, and when 
we tried to persuade him to rest for just a little while, 
he said, 'No, it will pass away after awhile, and God 
will help me without resting.' He did not know he was 
only seven days from eternal rest. He worked hour 
after hour. In the evening after supper he began writ- 
ing articles by hand, as the stenographers were so 
rushed with work themselves ; and when one of the 
girls came up at nine or ten o'clock, she was startled 
by the look of intense weariness on his face, and made 
some exclamation about it, and ofifered to take some 
of his work ; but he said so gently and kindly, *No, I 
will finish this ; you are all doing all you can.^ He 
worked on until almost eleven o'clock, and the next 
Saturday evening, about the same time, he was passing 
through the gates into 'the city which hath foundations, 
whose Builder and Maker is God.' As we went into 
the office that Sunday morning and looked at his desk, 
and saw the articles with the papers and books lying- 
just as he had left them, we thought of the souls who 
would read his articles and be urged on to a real walk 
with God, and taste for themselves what it means to 
live a life hid with Christ in God, and that he was now 
experiencing what he had talked so long. 



288 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

''Consuming Passion for Soues. 

"Several weeks before he became ill there was a call 
pleading with him to come to a little town away down 
in the heart of the Kentucky mountains. He did not 
see how he could go, and yet the call was so urgent 
that it rang in his soul ; and they pleaded that he would 
not send any one else, but 'come himself.' His work 
was so rushing here that it seemed impossible for him 
to leave; yet he held the matter before God until he 
was clear that the Lord led that way. He had to ride 
twenty-four miles up the mountain-side in a stage- 
coach, and the grade was so steep that he got out 
and ran on ahead of the horses. On one side of the 
mountain he came to a -poor, forlorn little cabin, the 
windows gone, desolation and deprivation written all 
over it. Taking a little Testament from his pocket, he 
climbed rapidly up the steps until he reached it, and 
then went in and talked to them about Jesus, and read 
the Word, and prayed with them before the coach 
caught up with him. He had a consuming passion that 
men and women should be saved. This little incident 
is only one of many which were thickly sprinkled 
through his life. 

"Further up the mountain he found a big, bold- 
faced rock, and sitting down he wrote on it, 'Prepare to 
meet thy God,' and asked the Lord to use it in con- 
victing some lost soul of his need of a Savior, claiming 
the promise that His Word should not return unto Him 
void. 

"Prevailing Prayer. 

"He believed that when a soul was right with God, 
and knew Him in His saving and sanctifying power, he 
could prevail with God in prayer, and he would so many 



Lii^K OF Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 289 

times call, 'Holy Ghost, have right of way!' God came 
down and answered. He would groan, and agonize, 
and weep, and fast, and pray that souls should be born 
into the kingdom, that the gift of faith should be given 
for the mission fields, that the money needed for all 
parts of the work should be sent in. God answered. 
He believed that you could step out on the promise of 
God, and stand there, and that God would never let 
you fall, but would see you through. No matter if 
carnal ecclesiastics should try to dissuade, friends should 
counsel and advise, loved ones should plead, enemies de- 
ride, and so-called holiness professors oppose, when God 
spoke he would go through, he would obey. He always 
had a fear of not keeping in step with God. He said 
he did not want to 'lag behind,' and did not want 'to 
run ahead ;' but just wanted to 'keep in step with God ;' 
and as long as he was there he was safe, and the Lord 
wonderfully blessed him and helped him." 

People wonder at the success of the Revivalist. Well, 
here are the principles on which Brother Knapp ran it, 
written by himself. There is no patent on it. All the 
religious editors can adopt them who will. But the 
trouble is, not one religious editor in fifty will so run 
his paper; and the people have found it out. 

"The Revivalist. 

"The interests of the kingdom of heaven to-day call 
for a weekly paper which shall meet the following con- 
ditions : 

"(a) Be on the broad Bible basis. 

"(b) Free from bigotry and sectarianism, and 
adapted to circulation among believers of every name. 

"(c) Loyal to Christ and His Church, and a foe to 
all counterfeits of either. 
19 



2QO A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

''(d) Fearless and Christlike in controverting error 
wherever found. 

"(e) That will feed spiritual life, and fight the foes 
that would destroy it. 

''(f) That will mightily magnify the fully sanctifying 
baptism with the Holy Ghost as the very mainspring 
of experimental spirituality, and at the same time neither 
substitute it for the other parts of the watch, or them 
for it. 

"(g) That is a relentless foe to worldliness, formality, 
compromise, and every enemy of the true behever. Free 
from dependence on human dictators or worldly ad- 
vertisements. 

"The RevivaHst is such a paper." 



i 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
EMANCIPATION.— TRANSLATION. 

*' Why be afraid of Death, — as though your hfe were breath ? 
Death but anoints your eyes with clay, — O glad surprise ! 

Why should you be forlorn ? Death only husks the corn ; 
Why should you fear to meet the thresher of the wheat ? 

Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead 
Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the skies. 

Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench ? 
Why not with happy shout run home when school is out? 

* The dear ones left behind !' O foolish one and blind ! 
A day, and you will meet ; a night, and you will greet ! 

This is the day of Death, to breathe away a breath. 
And know the end of strife, and taste the deathless life, 

And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear. 

And work, nor care to rest, and find the last the best." 

— M. D. Babcock, D. D. 

* ' When Sir Walter Scott was approaching his end, he said to Lock- 
hart: 'I may have but a minute to speak to you, my dear. Be a good 
man ; be virtuous ; be religious ; be a good man. Nothing else will give 
you any comfort when you come to lie here.' A pensive testimony, yet 
how tender and honest ! ' — T. T. MuNGER. 

" Death is the liberator of him whom freedom can not release, the 
physician of him whom medicines can not cure, and the comforter of him 
whom time can not console." 

When I was a youth in my teens I remember read- 
ing the biography of a noble young man who died 
fighting for his country. I have forgotten his name and 

29^ 



292 



A Hero oe Faith axd Prayer. 



every line of the book but one sentence : ''That Hie is 
long which answers life's great end." 

Measured by achievements, by results, by influences 
started, agencies inaugurated, forces set in motion, 
godlike thoughts, and holy deeds, our brother's life 
was long, though it closed at the early age of forty- 
eight. For, as a poet observes : 

'* We live in deeds, not years ; in thoiights, not breaths ; 

He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best:" 

His dear wife writes pathetically of these last days : 
"He was constantly misunderstood, actions and motives 
misjudged, and when he stepped out of the Methodist 
Church and took his stand on Church relations, so 
many old friends dropped him, and he was criticised 
by friends and all, and such a pressure was brought 
to bear from every source, so much was crowded in the 
one last year, that he grew homesick, and longed for 
heaven or Jesus to come. It seemed God just let him 
go. He had n't taken medicine for years, and had been 
wonderfully healed many times ; but this time no one 
could get hold. One night sixteen students prayed all 
night, and about four o'clock A. M. such rest and as- 
surance came they thought it meant his healing. 

''I was so confident God could n't possibly spare him 
at this time of the work that I never could think he 
would go ; and up to within one half hour of his death, 
I expected him to be healed. I have n't gotten over 
the surprise yet, that God could spare him, though I 
know now he wanted him there. I believe it was God's 
time, and had he wanted him here he could have kept 
him from overwork. On Wednesday before he died 
he said he wished he could take the baby with him 
(now five years old), and she constantly wants to go. 



LiFK oi^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



293 



''I send you a copy of Mr. Knapp's last work, the 
song-book, and you can see from his last songs where 
his heart was. He specially loved 'Redeemed by the 
Blood ;' tears would come and his face shine when it 
was sung. 'Up in Heaven' was written by his 
stenographer, a beautiful spirit with us still. 

* Soon I '11 end my pilgrim journey 
In a house not made with hands.' 

That hymn means so much to me. I did not know 
that it was written until I heard it sung in the tabernacle 
after his death, and it overcame me. These were his 
latest songs. We can look back now and see how he 
was ripening for heaven, and how God let him tell us 
all through the summer his thoughts and wishes about 
almost every detail of the work." 

And so this mighty worker finished his task at an 
early hour of life's day. God gently kissed the weary 
eyelids 01 the toiler into slumber, and gave His beloved 
sleep. 

"Years ago, while an invalid, whom friends and rela- 
tives and doctors said must die, one moonlight night, 
in a little tent on the shores of Lake Michigan, God 
came to Brother Knapp and gave him the promise that 
he would heal him. And some way a panoramic view 
came before his eyes of all the work of the future. From 
that time he began to amend." Thus writes "Bessie;" 
and she add the following account of the last days and 
hours : 

"This past year the work greatly increased, and he 
would be up late and early, and always at it — so self- 
denying and so self-sacrificing ; no money to be spent 
for his personal comforts. God must have it all. Any 
little thing in the world that he could think of that he 



294 "^ Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

could do without he did, so as not to spend the Lord's 
money. Many, many times this past winter have I seen 
him sit at his desk and cry, 'O my God, my God! won't 
You hurry and wake up people ?' He would just groan 
under the burden of souls, and that God should soon 
send forth laborers. He walked and talked and lived 
in the light of the judgment, uncompromising on every 
line; and when his fidelity to God and a full salvation 
lost to him the fellowship of the Alichigan Methodist 
Episcopal Conference, whom he so much loved, and of 
other people who would have been his friends if he 
had not lived so close to God and walked in the light 
of the Bible, he would say to us : 'Glory to God! I will 
stand true if everybody on earth goes back. I will be 
true to God.' 

"We can look back now, and see, for the last two 
months, how marvelously he was ripening for heaven. 
God gave him beautiful songs ; but they almost all ran 
along the line of heaven. He got so homesick for God, 
many an evening he said, 'If Jesus would only come 
to-night, I would be so glad to see Him.' The last 
month especially he talked so much of the Lord's com- 
ing, and took up the Book of Revelation to explain to 
the class, little knowing how quickly he should know 
and understand the whole book in the light of the City 
itself. He was always so tender and patient with all 
of us, no matter what we would do. Not once in my life 
here in two years can I look back and say that he ever 
caused me a needless hurt or pain ; and when I was 
tempted and tried or tired, he would have some tender, 
gentle word of cheer. O I just praise God because I 
have been here for these two years, and that He ever 
sent Brother Knapp to Cincinnati to wake me up ! 

"His illness was only one week. He was translated 



Life: of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



295 



at eleven o'clock Saturday night, December 7th, and 
was conscious almost to the last, knowing us all, and 
tenderly talking and giving us words of encouragement. 
On Friday night, although suffering the most intense 
agony, when one of the nurses stooped over and said, 
'Brother Knapp, do you know me?' he answered, 'Yes;' 
and shortly afterward he turned to her and said, 'Wake 
them up, wake them up !' and she said, 'Wake whom 
up, Brother Knapp?' thinking he meant the students, 
and he answered, 'Wake up the souls that are going to 
hell.' A little later another one waited on him, and he 
gave her the same message. 

"On Saturday morning, although very, very near the 
City, so near he could almost look in, another of the 
nurses stooped over and said to him, 'Brother Knapp, 
do you know me ?' Calling her name, he said : 'O yes, 
I know you. Are you on your way to heaven?' She 
tried to turn the answer off, but three times he re- 
peated the question until he made her answer. And 
when several of the boys were waiting on him after- 
wards, he prayed, 'Lord, bless the boys !' 

"On Wednesday afternoon he talked to me about 
the plans of the work, telling me that it should go on 
the same as it had gone on, and that he had made Mrs. 
Knapp, Sister Mary Storey, and myself the trustees, as 
he knew we would hold it to the same line as he had 
been doing, without one iota of deviation. He planned 
who should be the teachers in the school, and the edi- 
tors of God's Revivalist, etc. We three feel the weight 
of the responsibility that he laid on our shoulders ; but 
we know that God is equal to every emergency, and 
that He is going to see us through. 

"He was sick in bed only a week, and did not seem 
very ill until Thursday night ; but the doctors whom 



296 A Hero of Faith axd Prayer. 

we called to hold a post-mortem examination told us 
that the internal organs showed that he had been over- 
worked six months before this, and that when the fever 
came he had no vitality whatever to resist it, and that 
for two weeks before taking to his bed he had had it 
while walking around and preaching and teaching and 
attending to his work. 

"There were many, many prayers went up to God 
tor his healing. One night sixteen students prayed all 
night, and God gave a marvelous rest in our hearts and 
quietness and peace ; and we all thought he was going 
to get well ; but he Avas going to be well with God up 
in heaven. The whole time of his illness he preached 
and talked about God and being true to Him. On 
Friday night, although suffering most intensely, after 
doing some little thing for him, I knelt down by his 
side to see if he was asleep, and softly and gently his 
two hands reached out and rested on my head, and 
he prayed God to give me a double portion of His Spirit, 
with words that will stay with me forever. Somehow 
that blessing has made me strong to go on and fight 
for God as never before. 

"As he lived in life, so will he be buried — in sim- 
plicity — on Tuesday afternoon, December loth, at two 
o'clock. There will be no crapes, nor mourning robes, 
as per his request. The body, according to one 
of his latest requests, will be cremated Tuesday 
afternoon and the ashes put into a little urn and 
sealed. There has always been a saying that 
no great work is ever accomplished unless it is 
sealed by the lives of those who love it ; and 
this has been true in his case. He was a martyr 
to the work here. Fast summer he was telling us how 
much he loved the place and loved the work and loved 



LiFi: oi^ Rkv. j\I. W. Knapp. 297 

God, and said, when he shpped off to heaven he ex- 
pected to come back and watch over us, and that he 
would Hke for his ashes to be buried in the Tabernacle ; 
so on Thursday, the 19th of December, at two o'clock, 
there will be a memorial service in charge of Brother 
Rees, and the ashes will be buried beside the corner- 
stone, in which are sealed all the names of the Reviv- 
alist subscribers. Thus his ashes will rest right beside 
those whom he so much loved and poured out his life 
for. We feel that it will be an inspiration to us, and 
make this, Tabernacle more sacred. We miss him so 
much, but God needed him in heaven, and took him, 
and we have, not one of us, one thing in our hearts 
except 'Amen' to the will of God ; and, while we do not 
understand it, it will work out to His glory. We would 
not call him back to bear the storms and the tempests, 
if we could; but O, how we need the prayers of God's 
Revivalist family that God will give us just the needed 
wisdom and the needed strength that He has promised ! 
''God was good to him in his death. There was no 
struggling or gasping. He just lay quietly on the pil- 
low, and breathed slower and slower, and, like some one 
going to sleep, he slipped into heaven. His face, which 
had been so white and wan and full of pain, after he 
had gone was changed. Somehow it seemed Hke the 
first glimpse of heaven must have left its imprint on the 
clay ; and the features bore a calm, sweet rest that told 
only of the rest of God. Somehow his going has 
brought heaven very close to all of us. Some weeks 
ago, while preaching in the Tabernacle, he was pictur- 
ing to us what it would be to hear God's 'Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant ; enter thou into the joy 
of thy Lord;' and as he thus spoke, his face had a 
strange, unearthly beauty, which sent a chill to my heart ; 



2o8 A Hero of Faith and Praykr.. 

for I was afraid he was close to the time when he would 
go from us to hear that sentence. God is proving Him- 
self to us, and keeping us in perfect peace. Brother 
Knapp has just joined the 'Welcoming Committee' 
about whom he talked so much. We loved him; but 
God loved him more. We needed him; but God needed 
him more. And we do not know but what he will come 
to-morrow with Jesus to catch us all up. It has helped 
our eyes to be fixed in the upward gaze for the coming 
of the Lord. And while he has gone on before, yet 
his life and his work will speak and preach for Jesus." 
When dear Dr. Keen died a few years ago so prema- 
turely, as it seemed to his friends, burned out by the 
consuming fire of his zeal. Brother Knapp wrote the 
following poem, which applies to himself more appro- 
priately even than it did to Dr. Keen. Brother Knapp 
died at an earlier age and after more amazing and con- 
suming labors. This hymn was used at the funeral : 

'I HAVE NOW NO REGRETS.' 

"Shortly before his translation Rev. S. A. Keen, the Pentecostal 
pastor-evangelist, said : ' They think I have worked too hard ; but I have 
now no regrets, and if I could I would do it all over again.' 

" '1 have now no regrets !' for the past is all clear, 
With its labor of love for my Savior so dear ; 
On his errands so sweet I have sped with delight, 
All my pleasure by day and my song in the night. 

' I have now no regrets P bless the Lamb that zcas slain ! 

' If I could I would do it all over again.'' 

' I have now no regrets !' what a comfort that day, 
As the scenes of this earth were all fading away, 
To possess the assurance this blessing did bring, 
And while passing from earth so triumphantly sing — 

• I have now no regrets P bless the Lamb that was slain ! 

' If I could I would do it all over again. ' 



LiF^iv OF* Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 2QQ 

As the souls of the saved shall in glory appear, 

Who were rescued or filled through his labors while here ; 

Who shall say but his song in glad notes full and free, 

To the music of heaven forever will be — 
^ T have now no regrets P bless the Lamb that ivas slain! 
' If I could I would do it all over again P 

* I have now no regrets !' should the summons to-day. 
Which we all very soon must receive and obey, 
Should it come, on our lips would the same message ring, 
Could we join the same song and as joyfully sing? — 

* / have now no regrets P bless the Lamb that luas slain ! 
' If I could I would do it all over again. "" ' ' 

The funeral services were very simple, yet withal 
exceedingly tender and solemn. The large audience- 
room nearly filled with people ; the windows draped in 
white; the black coffin bearing the last remains of our 
loved friend and brother; the precious stillness, broken 
only by the tones of the leaders, and the heart-sobbing 
of loved ones. No ostentation or show. He was 
dressed in the same suit he wore when with us. The 
hair was brushed back from the high white forehead, 
while on the face rested a look of peace and rest that 
was born in heaven — so still, so calm, so tender. It 
was no wonder, as the friends came and looked in his 
face for the last time until we meet our Lord in the 
air, many gave way and could not contain their 
grief. 

I shall never forget the impressions of that service. 
My heart came into a new consecration and union with 
Jesus, the world slipped away, and we seemed to stand 
even at the gates of the New Jerusalem. O beloved, 
it pays to serve God with all the heart, strength, and 
soul ! 

The students sang, 'T have no regrets." 



200 A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

Prayer by Brother Godbey. 

"We give Thee glory for a Savior, just such a Sav- 
ior as we need — a Savior in youth, a Savior in life's 
vigor, a Savior in declining years, a Savior when soul 
and body separate. O what a wonderful Savior we 
have ! 

"Pour on us the Spirit for Jesus' sake. Do, Lord, 
send the Spirit to every soul in this presence ! We glo- 
rify Thee for the life of our precious brother. We 
magnify Thee for the forty-eight years Thou didst per- 
mit him to shine upon the earth; and we adore Thee 
for the blessed assurance that he now shines in bright 
glory, and will shine with ever-increasing splendor be- 
fore the throne of God. He had loved ones gone be- 
fore. O, he is happy since he went thither at midnight, 
at the winding up of the last week, and has enjoyed a 
glorious Sunday in heaven ; began the week in the sun- 
bright clime ! 

"Lord, we magnify Thee for Thy signal mercy, for 
his wonderful life upon the earth. We glorify Thee 
for the nine bright, fresh, and beautiful books he has 
written on holiness, which have been an inspiration to 
thousands, and will continue to quicken the tread of 
the millions marching to glory so long as the world 
continues. We glorify Thee for his trenchant pen, 
which has sent the Revivalist around the world preach- 
ing the everlasting gospel of the cross. We glorify 
Thee for all of the books he published and sent to the 
ends of the earth on missions of love and mercy. 

"We magnify Thee for Thy imutterable grace dis- 
played through his instrumentality. Lord, we praise 
Thee, and we are utterly incompetent to praise Thee 
as we ought for the wonderful light, labor, and effi- 



LiFK 01^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^qi 

ciency of this dear, good man. O my Lord, my Lord, 
how we do extol and glorify Thee ! Lord, we need 
him here ; but. Lord, Thou dost make no mistakes. 
Thou dost need him more in heaven than on earth. In 
Thee we do rejoice on this funeral occasion. Now so 
pour out Thy Spirit that we may go down deeper in 
Thy sweet will than ever before, and make this an 
epoch in our history, and enable us all here to raise 
our Ebenezer, and to proclaim to men, angels, and dev- 
ils, Thus far hath the Lord helped me. So let all profit 
by the bright and beautiful,, exemplary, aggressive life, 
and set out afresh for heaven and after glory run ! 

''We commend to Thee his venerable mother in life's 
evening, but courageous for Thee, for truth and right- 
eousness. May she not think she has lost her son! 
He is real as he ever was, and living in a better coun- 
try than ever. O let her not say, 'I lost my son;' for 
it is a mistake ! Sustain her in life's evening ; give her 
many days to glorify Thee here. 

''His wife ! Showers of blessings on her, sunbursts 
of light and glory on her for the great responsibility ! 
As this good man communicated to me, he thought 
of going avs^ay to live with the angels pretty soon, and 
his arrangements for his wife to succeed him. Lord, 
put Thy hand on her. Thou canst give her all the help 
she needs ; so just now put Thy great hand upon her, 
and fortify her against every doubt, and every fear, 
and every misgiving. Make her courageous to walk 
out in the footprints of her glorified husband. My Lord, 
I feel Thou art even now preparing her for the responsi- 
bility; so this good man translated will still Hve on in 
the personality of his better half. 

"Put Thine hand on his only son, dear Johnnie. We 
give Thee glory for Thy sweet grace which has already 



302 -"^ Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

reached him. We praise Thee for the bright grace of 
his youth, going back to his childhood. Do, Lord, 
inspire him, inspire the saints in his behalf, that John- 
nie shall rise up and be 'Brother Knapp' number two! 
Spirit of the Lord, I feel Thou art coming right now, 
putting a double portion upon the survivors. 

"Dear daughter Anna ! O bring her, like ]\Iary of 
old, to sit at Thy feet, and, like Martha, to serve the 
blessed ^Master diligently ! i\Iay the little girl be an 
angel of mercy, growing up to glorify Thee ! Spirit 
of the Lord, rest upon the colaborers, too many to tell 
Thee about, whose names are in the Book of Life. 
Sister Storey! A thousand blessings upon her! Pre- 
pare her for her arduous labors. 

"These dear sisters who are so soon going to Africa 
to the people there; all these young people in the 
Training-school here, learning the gospel, — may they 
go out preaching the Everlasting Word! Let them 
not think their leader is gone ; for the Holy Ghost is 
their Leader. He can lead through any human instru- 
ment. Blessed Lord, we turn over to Thee the Train- 
ing-school. We plead with Thee, for Thou canst do it, 
— make the translation of Brother Knapp a sunburst 
of light and wisdom and blessing on the Training-school 
and the audiences that gather in this Tabernacle, the 
gospel Church Thou hast built up. 'My Lord, Thou 
didst wish Brother Knapp to launch this beautiful and 
glorious institution ; and it is here on the mountain- 
pinnacle, like Jerusalem on the summit of ]\Iount Zion, 
and shimng out over the Holy Land in all directions. 
So we have faith in Thee to make this a gospel taber- 
nacle, so beautifully named 'God's Tabernacle.' O what 
a sweet and glorious name ! ]\Iake God's tabernacle 
a perpetual shining light to this city ! 



LiFK oi- Rev. M. W. Knapp 



303 



''And Brother Knapp's camp-meeting, running so 
long, Thou hast so signally blessed ! We beHeve Thou 
art going to keep Thy hand on it for Thy honor and 
glory. And we plead with Thee in behalf of his pub- 
lications. My Lord, lay Thy hand on this good wife in 
all the publishing work. O what a privilege it is — these 
grand enterprises ! We have faith in Thee that they 
may not only live and grow, but will shine with ever- 
lasting splendor until it encircles the globe. 

"We remember before Thee the missionaries of Ja- 
pan, India, and Africa. Thy hand on them. Forbid 
that the enemy should discourage them by the news 
of the glorification of our brother. It will sadden their 
hearts as it does ours ; for we so much regret to have 
him absent from us ; but, Lord, make it an inspiration 
to bring them nearer to God, so that they may no 
longer look to Brother Knapp, but look to the Lord, 
and sink away into God deeper and deeper. 

''We pray for the entire Holiness Movement from 
ocean to ocean. Thou hast taken the most aggressive 
warrior we have had. His battle-cry leaped from ocean 
to ocean, and beyond the seas, and cheered many hearts 
in heathen lands. Thou hast taken him away. Make 
his beautiful life an inspiration to all the holiness peo- 
ple. His energy, his indefatigable perseverance, is in- 
effaceable on the hearts of the holiness people. Spirit 
of the Almighty, come wonderfully on the holiness peo- 
ple ! The Lord enable us to be true with everybody, 
an angel of mercy, preaching to the hellward-bound 
millions, and sending the gospel to the heathen, and, 
like the loving brother, preaching to the saints of all 
the nations, and doing our utmost to bring people 
nearer to God. O Spirit of the Almighty, I do believe 
Thou art going to make the glorification of our dear 



204 A Hero oj^ Faith and Praykr. 

brother an inspiration to the HoHness Movement in the 
earth, and I beHeve his books will be read with a deeper 
preciousness ; and, as Thou hast said, 'They shall rest 
from their labors, and their works do follow them,' 
and so we have faith in Thee to push on this, our dear 
brother's work. 

"O my Lord, make it like an inundating river, like 
a swelling sea, rolling on to the ends of the earth ! And 
now, as we shall be called away, one by one, O how 
glad we will be to meet our Brother Knapp in bright 
glory, and bring him encouraging words about his work 
here ! Let the Spirit of the Lord from heaven descend 
and rest upon every human spirit ! Inspire every one 
to drive a stake and say, 'Henceforth I will live nearer 
God, and will be more courageous for God and right- 
eousness.' 

''Now, Lord, there are broken hearts all around 
here. Specially in the home there is a bereavement we 
can not condole ; but O, we do magnify Thee for the 
infallible Comforter, and turn over all these broken 
hearts to Him ! He can comfort them. O my Lord, 
my Lord, the Comforter! we plead for the bereaved 
ones and for all assmebled ones in this dispensation of 
Thy providence. I know my Lord leads, and we take 
courage, and set out afresh for heaven, and after glory 
run. When the roll of this congregation is called be- 
yond the stars, let none be missing, let all be found 
washed in the blood of the Lamb. Thine the glory. 
Amen." 

Sister E. D. Ferle, missionary to Africa, sang "Re- 
deemed by the Blood," one of the songs God gave to 
Brother Knapp shortly before he went to heaven, and 
published in "Bible-songs of Salvation and Victory." 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^05 

"Sermon. 

W. B. GODBEY. 

"This is certainly a surprise to me. Brother Knapp 
and myself have been intimately associated in our work 
for the Lord for eight years — perhaps, or nearly. I am 
twenty years his senior. Though I am on the outlook 
for my Lord daily, but if He tarrieth and sends an 
angel to call me away, as He did my brother, I had 
already selected Brother Knapp to preach my funeral. 
It illustrates the maxim, 'Man proposes, but God dis- 
poses.' 

"In the thirty-eighth verse of the third chapter of 
Second Samuel : 'Know ye not that there is a prince 
and a great man fallen this day in Israel?' 

"Brethren, I remember the old Latin maxim, 'Speak 
no good of the living, nor ill of the dead;' but it is all 
right to encourage the living with reference to the dead. 
I use this text because it applies beautifully to our dear 
brother. A 'prince' means a leader. He was one of 
those born to lead. He was one of the most humble, 
unassuming men I ever knew in my life. God made 
him a leader, a leader of Israel's hosts. He has always 
been that, and, though comparatively young when the 
Holiness Movement was launched, by the Spirit he 
has always been in the front, and 'a prince and a great 
man.' 

"You may think we ought not to use that in refer- 
ence to Brother Knapp. Of course, I would not, if he 
were living. It is all right now by way of encouraging 
the living. He was no ordinary man. He stood above 
his fellows. Those well acquainted will corroborate 
me ; so he was, just as this says, 'a leader and a great 
man.' There is one thing I might say, You know the 



2o6 A He:ro of Faith and Praye^r. 

reason why he was a more efficient writer than speaker, 
while he was a good speaker; but, beloved, the solu- 
tion of that is this : I believe he had the most active 
brain I ever came in contact with. The reason he 
could write better than he could speak is that his mind 
ran away with all words, until language was beggared 
in effort to utter his thoughts, moving in panorama 
before him, and flashing in sunbursts around him ; and 
so it was the wonderful activity of his mind. I am satis- 
fied that I never saw a man whose mental activity and 
brightness was like his. That is the reason he lies 
there now. The postmortem solution was that he was 
worn out, and that, of course, the fever was merely 
incidental in the matter; but the constitution was worn 
out and gone. I have always been afraid, and conse- 
quently have done my best to put the brakes on him ; 
but we could not all do that, and the solution of his 
comparatively short life is the fact that the intellectual 
predominated over the physical power — too much men- 
tality for the amount of bodily power — and consequently 
the body wore out prematurely before the mind. You 
need not look on this as a novelty. He told me that 
twenty years ago physicians told him he could not live. 
"He was a regular incarnation of energy. You just 
could not keep him still to save your Hfe. O how won- 
derfully enterprising he was ! And the result was, in- 
tellect ran away with the body. It was too much for 
the material organism. We should not indulge in criti- 
cism at this point, because it is certainly better to do 
our work quickly and go to heaven and enjoy it. There 
are so many about rusting out. Better wear out than 
rust out, and then go to glory. He gave others a bet- 
ter example, and did all the work you can any way. 
That was just why this brother did move at racehorse 



Life of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 307 

speed, and the result was his body wore out and broke 
down with overwork, hke Brother Moody and many 
others. So, beloved, you are in the midst of his enter- 
prises all around you. I dare say Cincinnati never has 
had a citizen who has brought into it so many enter- 
prises, and not worldly — all for God. We would not 
claim infallibility for our dear brother : he was, like the 
rest of us, liable to mistakes. 

"John Wesley, preaching Fletcher's funeral, said, 
'There lies in that coffin the most saintly man I ever 
knew, and I never expect to know another such till 
I to glory go.' So, beloved, he corroborates this text 
very beautifully. I hope you will all pray for the sur- 
viving members of his family, pray for his enterprises, 
pray for his work. Do you carry it all up to God, and 
He will do wonders ; and O, do implead the blessed Holy 
Spirit to inspire you all with a double portion of faith 
for these enterprises which our brother has incorpo- 
rated. 

''Now, I beheve the Lord wants me to take another 
text. You will find it in the twenty-sixth verse of the 
eleventh of St. John, 'And whosoever liveth and believ- 
eth in Me shall never die.' Good Lord, shine that truth 
into every heart in this presence ! Death is man's word. 
Jesus refused to use it when He was on the earth ; and 
He said of Lazarus, after he was dead, 'He is not dead, 
but sleepeth, and I go to awaken him out of his sleep.' 
Do n't say he died. Good Lord, deliver us from the 
parlance of the world ! And sanctification takes the 
world out of us ; and hence we ought to drop the par- 
lance of the world, and now, as our Savior refused to 
use the word 'dead,' even when He went to raise Jairus's 
daughter from the dead. He said, 'She is not dead, 
but sleepeth;' and they mocked Him because they 



3o8 A Hero oi^ Faith and Prayer. 

thought He meant physical death. So let us all take 
in our Savior's blessed words, 'And whosoever liveth 
and believeth in Me shall never die ;' so it follows as an 
irresistible sequence from the infallible declaration of 
our Savior that, after all, our brother is not dead. 

"When I received a telegram Sunday evening, living 
out in the country, had to walk in the rain at night 
and take the train to come here, I lay down and went 
to sleep a little ; and in my sleep I actually saw him 
alive. That was after he was dead in the manner of 
human phraseology. It is a beautiful illustration of this 
declaration of our Savior, He that liveth and beHeveth 
in Him shall never die. Our brother had spiritual life, 
and believed in Jesus ; and he is not dead. His good 
wife is not a widow in the estimation of angels and 
God, because her husband is as really in heaven as he 
was on earth, and in much better environments ; and 
his sister-in-law I met awhile ago, her brother is as 
real as ever ; and the dear mother, the son is alive — 
glory to God ! — and the daughters, he is still alive — 
praise the Lord ! — and living in a much better place 
than ever before, and living where he never can die. 
Here, of course, he might have died spiritually, but his 
probation is over, and the victory won, and heaven 
gained, and glory has superseded grace, and earth has 
been exchanged for heaven ; and so he sings the songs 
of triumph and victory, and preached a salvation that 
gives it in this life ; but now he is on the mount of vic- 
tory, and shouting among the loved ones gone before. 
O what a congratulation when he met his sainted com- 
panion who was glorified some twelve years ago, per- 
haps, or more ! O I will tell you, beloved, it is a won- 
derful glory to leave this world and go to heaven! It 



Lii^e: of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



309 



is wonderful, wonderful ! I have to just turn away my 
contemplations from it ; otherwise I would get so home- 
sick I could hardly content myself to stay here until 
I can finish my work. O see our brother ! O what 
a victory he has gained ! 

''Sunday night, in the short hours of the morning, 
in the darkness and the falling rain, while I was walk- 
ing through the mud to reach the train to get here, 
asking the Lord that He might use me in some way 
to comfort the brokenhearted, I did what I believe 
Brother Knapp would have done had he got a tele- 
gram : he would have come right along, not knowing 
I was imperiling my life. I thought. What a contrast 
between Brother Knapp with the angels and myself! 
O what a booming time he was having in bright glory ! 
And though I have heard him say he could not sing, 
he is singing now. I do n't think he performed on in- 
struments ; but I tell you what, he is playing the golden 
harps to-day ; and, though there is no mail line from 
heaven down to us, we leave the times of inspiration, 
but there is a mail line from earth to heaven; for the 
saints are all the time receiving their dispatches and 
going up to glory, and I will tell you, many a saint 
will bring good word to Brother Knapp, and he will 
hear how his work is getting along, certainly as we live ; 
and so he will often hear from you, though you do not 
often hear from him. O this wonderful truth, He that 
liveth and believeth on Him 'shall never die !' Glory to 
God ! Dry your tears, unless they are tears of joy ; 
for Brother Knapp would not want you to shed them 
unless you shed them for joy. Cincinnati has another 
representative in heaven, the Holiness Movement has 
another genuine and true and faithful leader of the re- 



^lo A He:ro of Faith and Praykr. 

deemed hosts standing on the mount of victory. Show- 
ers of blessings on you all, for Jesus' sake !" 

This from Sister Storey: 

'*I thank God He ever gave me the privilege of meet- 
ing this brother! Nine years ago this fall I met 
Brother Knapp for the first time, and God assured me 
that He had sent him to this city to push the holiness 
work; and it was a great inspiration. I have been 
closely associated with him for these nine years, and 
never for a moment had a cause to doubt him on any 
line. I have found him true and loyal to God and His 
precious Word, loyal to holiness, loyal in every sense 
of the word. It is a great loss to my heart to-day; 
but I am glad God lives. I am glad God makes no 
mistake. Bless His name ! I am glad I know God is 
able to make all grace abound toward every one of us. 
As for me, when I gave my heart to God in full con- 
secration, He entirely sanctified me twenty years ago 
last September. I was to go the whole way with Jesus 
alone, and I am to-day, and I never had a feeling of 
dread or turning away from that to this hour. I feel 
like taking fresh courage. God is speaking to us. 

"I feel like the Lord said to Joshua and to Moses, 
'Be strong and of a good courage ; no man shall be 
able to stand before you forever ;' 'Only be strong and 
very courageous' — to be strong in God and in the power 
of His might. God is at the head of the Holiness Move- 
ment. It is a great loss to us here to lose Brother 
Knapp. We realize we had one who walked and talked 
with God. When we decided upon Brother Knapp, we 
could depend upon it, it was done in the light of the 
judgment, when He said^ 'I will never leave thee nor 



LiFK OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



311 



forsake thee/ He still lives, and is able to keep His 
word. He is with us. I realize as never before how 
important it is to walk out on His Word, and stand 
there by it, and declare it fearlessly. I thank God we 
have the Divine, blessed, indwelling Comforter, and He 
abides in this trying hour. 

''May the Holy Ghost come upon all our hearts as 
never before, and may we be true to Jesus ! It may 
not be long till He shall say, 'Come home.' God help 
us to live as our brother has lived, with accounts all 
settled up here. All was settled up. No doubt in the 
mind 'of any one about his enjoyment. No questions. 
The thing on his mind was that his associates should 
'wake up souls on their way to hell.' May God help 
us to wake up souls on their way to hell, as this is all 
our business here below, to cry, 'Behold the Lamb !' " 

Before the friends took leave, "Up in Heaven," a 
selection from "Bible-songs of Salvation and Victory," 
the last book edited by Brother Knapp, was sung by 
a quartet consisting of Brother C. E. Weigele, Sisters 
E. D. Ferle, Belle Staples, and Mattie Elerick, Brother 
McNeil at the organ. Before the congregation dis- 
persed, they sang, "We '11 never say good-bye in 
heaven ;" and many have expressed a determination to 
labor for God as never before, and meet our brother in 
heaven. Brother Wood says : "His last words to me 
were, 'See me again ;' and, though I did not have the 
privilege of seeing him again here, I am determined to 
press on and see him 'again.' " 

The services at the crematory on Clifton Heights 
were very short and simple. The first song, "Jesus, 
Lover of my soul," was followed by a prayer by Dr. 
Godbey. 



312 



A He:ro of Faith and Praye:r. 



UP IN HEAVEN. 

Belle Staples. 

One of the new hymns in ''Bible-songs of Salvation and Victory.' 
Brother Knapp loved it much. 

Sometimes here the shadows fall, 

But in heaven, but in heaven, 
Sadness never comes at all, 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 
Sorrow there can never stay, 
God shall wipe all tears away 
In that fair eternal day, 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 

Here our loved ones fade from sight, 

But in heaven, but in heaven. 
We shall meet on plains of light. 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 
Walls of jasper, streets of gold, 
When the pearly gates unfold. 
Bliss that never can be told, 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 

Jesus is the blessed Light, 

Up in heaven, up in heaven, 
Shining in His glory bright. 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 
Gates shall not be shut by day. 
Night forever passed away. 
O, I 'm going there to stay. 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 

Holy angels prostrate fall. 

Up in heaven, up in heaven, 
Crowning Jesus Lord of all, 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 
Soon we '11 join that happy throng ; 
Time is short, 't will not be long 
Till we join the victor's song 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 

Only those can enter in. 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 
Who are saved and cleansed from sin, 

Up in heaven, up in heaven. 



LiFK OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^13 

Jesus died that you might be 
Saved through all eternity, 
Won't you come and go with me? 
Up in heaven, up in heaven. 

Mrs. Knapp thus records her soul experience during 
the scene of final earthly separation: 

''Some weeks ago He led me to write an article 
on 'The Comfort of Jesus' for any in the big family 
who might be passing through sorrow and bereave- 
ment. Little did I dream I was writing it for myself! 
I want to tell you, I have found it true ; for Jesus only 
can give the real comfort in such an hour. 

"For days He gave such wonderful peace and rest, 
no burden to pray, that we thought God was going 
to heal him, when now we see He was only preparing 
us for the change. As he slipped into heaven so quietly 
on Saturday night, God came very near, and carried 
the heavy burden from our hearts ; and ever since we 
have felt borne on the prayers of the people, and lifted 
up above everything, so that we can only see the glory 
side. 

"On returning from the funeral in the carriage, I 
whispered to God I was coming home alone with Him, 
and would trust Him ; and with the sweetest peace He 
assured me He would be with me, and that I need not 
look at all the great responsibilities piled up, but sim- 
ply take one hour and one day at a time, and He 
would be right at my side for help, counsel, and wisdom. 

"That night I wanted to be alone with Him. I 
locked myself in my room, and, as I walked back and 
forth, with folded arms, I promised Him that we, upon 
whom had been laid the responsibility of carrying on the 
work, would be true to the trust He had given, and 
carry it on the same line and in the same way, that 



3^4 



A Hero of Faith and Prayi:r. 



there should be no change, that it should be pushed on 
full gospel lines ; and then the strength of God came 
into my soul. On Thursday after the funeral I was wait- 
ing in a lawyer's office for an hour or more. Leaning 
my head back on the chair, I closed my eyes, and my 
thoughts went up to the Mount of Blessings on the 
hill. I had had a burden over the sick ones there and 
one or two other things. 

''Almost instantly I felt God bending over my chair, 
and O, how He comforted me ! Then I felt He was 
brooding right over the Bible-school, and letting His 
blessing fall. Words can not express the sweetness of 
that hour ; and the blessing still lingers. I told my com- 
panion of His blessing, and said, 'I beheve God has been 
doing something up there while we have been gone.' 

''On arriving at the house, the one to open the door 
was one of the girls who had been sick. I expressed 
surprise at seeing her, but, with her face beaming, she 
said, 'The Lord has healed me.' 

"Passing in, I met two others who were rejoicing 
that God had touched their bodies, and they were per- 
fectly well. 

"We feel this is God's own work, of His own plant- 
ing and watering, and that He is going to carry it for- 
ward and bless it as He never has. 

"He has put dear Bessie in, and as clearly called 
her to the work as ever man was called to preach. She 
longs to pour out her Hfe for God and souls. She will 
be associated very closely in all of the work, 

"Under God the work will go on just as before. 

"We crave your prayers above all, and your co- 
operation as in the past. All we want to know is God's 
will, and we will spring to do it. We are leaning only 
on Him. He is our Refuge and Strength." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LIFE AFTER DEATH THROUGH A HOLY IN- 
FLUENCE. 

** Live for Something. — Thousands of men breathe, move and hve, 
pass off the stage of life, and are heard of no more. Why ? None were 
blessed by them ; none could point to them as a means of their redemption ; 
not a line they wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled, and so they 
perih-hed : their light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered 
more than insects of yesterday. Will you thus live and die, O man immor- 
tal } Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of 
virtue. Write your name, in kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of 
those you come in contact with, and you will never be forgotten. Good 
deeds will shine as brightly on the earth as the stars of heaven." 

— T. Chalmers. 

Brother Knapp shines serenely on, like a star of the 
first magnitude, in the constellation of the heroes of 
faith. His luster is undimmed. As the darkness of 
night reveals the brightness of the stars, so his death 
has only caused us to realize more fully the transcend- 
ent glory of his life. He forgot self, and lived for oth- 
ers ; and he will live on and live forever in those spir- 
itual forces he originated that will be felt in all lands 
and in all times, until they sweep in eternity and reach 
the throne of God. What grateful tributes have come 
to this fallen ''prince in Israel !" 



"Whatsoeve:r He Doeth Shall Prosper." 
Psa. i, 3. 

Belle Staples 

The psalmist, in describing the life of the godly, 
says, ''His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His 

315 



-5i6 A Hkro 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be 
like a tree planted by the rivers of water: his leaf also 
shall not wither, and w^hatsoEvKR he dokth shael 

PROSPER." 

Many times during the past year has this language 
come forcibly to my mind as being most wonderfully 
verified in the life of our dear Brother Knapp, now in 
glory. 

It is nearly eleven months since God opened the 
way and led me in a plain path from my home in Kan- 
sas to the Mount of Blessings, Cincinnati. Since that 
time I have been in the ofhce of God's RevivaHst con- 
tinuously, which is a most favorable point of observa- 
tion from which to view the many Hues of work carried 
on from this center, some rays of which reach clear 
across the briny ocean, and are bringing the light and 
joy of salvation to those sitting in heathen darkness in 
different lands. 

''Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." The secret 
of it is that this man lived in the center of God's will, 
and honored the Holy Ghost. He was very careful to 
get the mind of the Spirit in everything, and when God 
spoke he moved forward to victory. There was no such 
word as defeat or failure in his vocabulary. It was all 
"victory through the blood of Jesus." God bestowed 
upon him the gift of wisdom, which saved him from the 
great mistakes in judgment which are so often made 
even by deeply spiritual people who desire to do every- 
thing to God's glory. 

When, in addition to his almost numberless duties, 
God told him to start a Bible-school, he obeyed, and, 
notwithstanding the stringent rules which the Holy 
Ghost gave, bright, intelligent young people from the 
North and the South, the East and the West, came 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^17 

pouring in to study the Word; and many of them, as 
the great searchhght of heaven was turned in upon their 
souls, found they needed to go down deeper in God, 
and came to the altar to seek and find real Bible-expe- 
riences that would stand the tests of the coming judg- 
ment. 

Sometimes his messages were as the thunderings 
of Sinai, and we could almost see the forked lightning 
of God's wrath leaping upon those who reject light, 
refuse to surrender to Jesus now, in the day of mercy, 
and persist in neglecting this "great salvation.^' 

Sometiifies his messages were as the dew of heaven, 
refreshing the weary, encouraging the faltering, com- 
forting the tried and tempted, bringing new faith and 
light and victory to all of God's little ones. In either 
case the message ''prospered," the great deep of hearts 
was broken up, and souls sought and found Jesus in 
nearly every service. 

The promised prosperity has been greatly mani- 
fested in his books and booklets and in God's Revival- 
ist. Many a letter finds its way to the ofifice, telling of 
souls being converted, sanctified, estabhshed, cheered, 
or profited through the reading of his publications. 

One of his latest undertakings before leaving us 
for the glory world, and to which God gave marked 
prosperity, was the salvation services and Thanksgiving 
dinner for the poor. The first time he mentioned it in 
public was in one of the afternoon services of the Bible- 
school ; and while he was yet speaking, a dollar-bill was 
laid in his hand for that purpose; and from that time 
the money quickly flowed in. The Revivalist readers 
already know how God honored the efforts of the day, 
and that many came to Jesus and found peace. 

Since Brother Knapp has gone home it has come 



2i8 A He:ro of Faith and Prayi:r. 

to us with a new beauty how he claimed nothing as his 
own, but ever considered himself as simply God's agent 
to carry out His plans for a time. It was "God's Bible- 
school," "God's Revivalist," "God's Tabernacle." O 
yes, it was and is all God's, and He is still at the 
helm, and is going to carry on His own work, in His 
own way, to His own glory and the salvation of pre- 
cious, never-dying souls. 

** Peace, perfect peace, 1 

The future all unknown, 
Jesus we know. 

And He is on the throne." 

Loyal Unto D^ath. 

J. B. Martin. 

It has been asserted by some of the Dowie people 
that the death of Brother Knapp was a judgment sent 
upon him because he spoke against the claim of Mr. 
Dowie that he was the "reincarnation of the Prophet 
Elijah" and the "messenger of the covenant," etc. The 
same thing could be said of any other saint that dies, 
if that be true ; and to say that of all good people 
is too absurd for credence of any intelligent person. 
Brother Knapp has always been frail, and his physician 
told him twenty years ago that he could not live long; 
so that he has been, in some sense, anticipating his trans- 
lation ; and, no doubt, his desire to accomplish a great 
deal while he should live for the cause of God and 
souls made him exert himself beyond his strength, and 
if, in so doing, he trespassed against the laws of nature 
to such an extent as to impoverish the nerve-centers and 
reduce his vitality, like any other person, he would 
naturally become an easy prey for any disease. 

His zeal in God's service used his excessive mental- 



Life: oi^ Re:v. M. W. Knapp. iiQ 

ity, and caused him to undertake a work of supereroga- 
tion that was too much for his hmited endurance. 

In the postmortem examination the doctors said that 
Brother Knapp had Hterahy worn himself out. So his 
death was a legitimate ef¥ect of a legitimate cause, and 
we must not charge God foolishly in his taking off. He 
has allowed many another saint to go in the same 
way. God allows things to be sometimes which He 
does not order or ordain, and which is the result of 
man^s free moral agency and freedom of choice while 
on probation ; but such' things always come under the 
head of ''alf things" working together for good to them 
that love God. He tells us in His Word that "He makes 
the wrath of man praise Him, and the remainder of 
wrath He restrains." The word "wrath" is a compre- 
hensive term, and means all adverse conditions touch- 
ing man's life in this world, and permits them just so 
far as He can use them, or overrules them for good, 
and then says to Satan, "Thus far shalt thou go, and 
no farther." So God "works all things together for 
good to them that love Him" — all His direct and indi- 
rect providences. Only those who rebel under them 
are really worsted, but to them who are properly "ex- 
ercised" under the chastisements and bereavements of 
this life, "afterward" will find them "yielding the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness." This has proved true al- 
ready in Brother Knapp's case, as in the meetings many 
have testified to greater unction of the Holy Spirit and 
greater determination to be faithful to the end of the 
race. The Holy Spirit has not left us, and will not, as 
long as there is a loyal heart to respond to His touch 
of fire ; and God's Bible-school will see greater things 
in the near future than it has yet witnessed. 

The members of the Home and RevivaHst family 



320 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 



loved Brother Knapp as few men are, and his loyal, 
courageous spirit will never cease to inspire them to the 
conquest he has so triumphantly won. 

The Cremation. 

W. B. GODBEY. 

Our precious brother was cremated, as a matter of 
his own choice, earnest, and persistent request. The 
family yielded reluctantly. It was my first attendance 
of a cremation. Instead of going from God's Taber- 
nacle, where we held the funeral services, to the grave, 
we went to the crematory, and there closed the funeral 
services after the manner of the old-style interment of 
the dead. It seemed to go all right. In reference to a 
cremation I would simply observe that chemistry has 
long ago settled the identity of burning and disintegra- 
tion by decay. The highest scientific authority certifies 
that the results are precisely the same. So, after all, 
cremation is nothing more nor less than a speedy pro- 
cess of disintegration. When I was wandering amid 
the sepulchers in the Holy Land and the catacombs of 
Egypt, I could find nothing at all except in the cases of 
Egyptian mummies. I was confirmed in the fact that 
the entire human body, in the process of time, utterly 
disintegrates and returns to dust. Cremation does noth- 
ing but expedite the process of disintegration. We may 
also observe that it was the most common method of 
putting away the dead during the Roman ages. When 
a student in college, I read this statement from the 
pen of a reliable Roman historian, ''Aptid Romamis mor- 
tutui plerumqiie a-emebantin" ("Among the Romans the 
dead were generally burned.") It has never been dis- 
continued in Eastern and Central Asia. It is now be- 



Lii^E OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 321 

ing revived in Europe and America. Though quite a 
novelty, it may soon become common. Brother Stephen 
Merritt, our good, sanctified preacher, whose father v^as 
an undertaker, and who has been somewhat engaged in 
that business all his life, as I am informed, has a crema- 
tory plant in the suburbs of New York City. Of course, 
this is a matter of simple option with people, the great 
and important concern presenting itself, ''Are you ready 
to die?" It is superfluous for me to tell you that 
Brother Knapp left the world in glorious triumph. The 
immediate cause of his death, so far as human obser- 
vation extends, was typhoid fever, which he had but a 
few days, and passed away. Physicians, upon a post- 
mortem examination, decided that he was physically 
worn out, his brain power and nervous energy always 
having been too great for his physical ability ; hence he 
did his work, and got away to heaven at the early age 
of forty-eight. Let us all profit by his saintly and heroic 
example, and be sure that we join him in the glory land. 
It is pertinent here to state that he left his better half — 
dear Sister Knapp — his successor in the vast work 
which he pressed with so much life and energy for the 
glory of God. Hence all correspondence will come to 
Mrs. M. W. Knapp. The business in all departments 
will go on as hitherto. The training-school is in a very 
flourishing condition, well provided for in every respect, 
delightful quarters in the second and third stories of 
God's Tabernacle, as well as the Training-home. The 
Revivalist will go right on as hitherto. Let all the read- 
ers and friends pray for Sister Knapp and the workers 
in our brother's institutions. Sister Knapp understands 
his policy on all lines, and will faithfully, with the help 
of the Lord, perpetuate it. His work was always on 
the faith line — not faith that does not work, but the faith 



X22 -^ Hkro of Faith axd Prayer. 

that works with all the power of body, mind, and spirit, 
influence, and financial ability. Brother Knapp was a 
wonderful financier and a marvel on every line of busi- 
ness management. From what I can learn, all of his in- 
stitutions are in a healthy and prosperous condition. 
He never did pay salaries, nor assume financial respon- 
sibility in any way. The Lord always supplied him with 
good workers, so that his enterprises on the different 
lines have never suffered, but moved forward as the 
hand of the Almighty alone can give life, energy, and 
prosperity. The amount of work that the dear man 
carried was simply paradoxical : publishing more holi- 
ness books than any other man in the world ; sending 
holiness literature to the ends of the earth. He has 
missionaries in Africa, Japan, and India. Sister Fin- 
ney and Sister Ferle are booked to sail, January 15th, 
for South Africa. Be sure you pray for them. His mis- 
sionaries all go on the faith line, involving no financial 
responsibility. The Training-school numbers eighty to 
a hundred. They all seem to be full of faith and the 
Holy Ghost. The hand of the Almighty is certainly on 
the institution. They are all preparing to go out and 
preach the living Word and save souls. The school is 
well supplied with good teachers. God is wonderfully 
carrying it on independently of human responsibility, 
so far as financial obligation is concerned. We men- 
tion these facts to inspire your sympathies and your 
prayers for this work. Let the Revivalist family and all 
readers of the holiness books pubhshed by our glorified 
brother take hold of God with the grip of a giant, and 
hold on night and day for His hand of mercy, power, 
and wisdom in behalf of these institutions and enter- 
prises which are certainly unequivocally His. All re- 
ligious denominations are connected with this work. 



Life of Rev. M. W. KxXapp. 



323 



It is avowedly and practically and unconditionally in- 
terdenominational, and not, as some have supposed, un- 
denominational, as nearly all the students and work- 
ers are members of some branch of the great Protestant 
Church. The idea that some entertain of a new denomi- 
nation started here is utterly untrue. There is nothing 
here really new on the Church line except the organi- 
zation of a New Testament Society for the benefit of 
the students and converts who have no membership in 
denominational Churches. Of course, such a religious 
society, organized on a purely New Testament basis, 
is, in fact, a primitive Church, apostoHcal and evangel- 
ical ; but they do not consider it such, nor call it a 
Church. It is simply an organization on the New Testa- 
ment basis, much after the manner of a holiness band or 
association. All denominations are interested in this 
work, co-operative with it, and, so far as we know, 
friendly and sympathetic with it. It is, upon the whole, 
simply an integral part of the great Holiness Movement, 
built up strictly on the New Testament lines — i. e., an 
effort to drop back to first principles, and find the Lord 
in His glorious, full salvation, and labor faithfully to 
lead others into the experiences of a clear and satis- 
factory regeneration and entire sanctiiication. 

N. B. — The camp-meeting is established annually to 
open Thursday evening preceding the third Sunday in 
June, and close Monday evening following the fourth. 
As this date is earlier than most of the meetings, it will 
consequently be unincumbered with competition. This 
camp has become one of the greatest, brightest, and 
best in the world. Let the Revivalist family and the 
holiness people remember the date, and, if possible, at- 
tend, and, if not, join with us in prayer for another Pen- 
tecost such as God, in His great mercy, has given us in 



324 



A Hkro o^ Faith and Prayer. 



bygone years. Rev. Seth C. Rees, your humble serv- 
ant, and others whose names are in the Book of Life, 
will be with us, D. V. 

Do not forget this work in all of its ramifications. It 
is not Brother Knapp's, but God's. The paper is beau- 
tifully named God's Revivalist. The Tabernacle is su- 
perscribed in large letters on the front, "God's Taber- 
nacle." Rely upon it, God has raised up this institu- 
tion. His hand is on them. Our noble brother was 
simply a humble instrument. God calls His workers 
home, but carries on His work. So take these enter- 
prises and institutions, with which God is so wonder- 
fully pleased, on your heart to a throne of grace, and 
plead night and day that God shall continue the mercy 
and blessings of bygone years, perpetually setting His 
seal upon this work in all its ramifications. It has no 
hobbies of any kind. It is perfectly free, and knows 
nothing but God's truth and holiness. 



The following tributes are from the facile pen of 
Bessie : 

"Home LiEE. • 

"People who saw Mr. Knapp only in public, and 
heard him thunder forth the warnings of Sinai, little 
dreamed that he wept and prayed and loved the sin- 
ner as few people ever do. He was like Jesus. I have 
heard him preach the most awful truths that would 
fairly make people shake in their seats, because of the 
guilt on their souls ; but no sooner would they relent 
and kneel humbly at the altar, sincerely seeking God, 
than his whole demeanor would change, and he would 
cry over them and pray over them in a way that tbey 



LiF^i^ OF* Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 325 

could not help but know that he loved them. There 
were times here at the Mount of Blessings when it 
seemed as if the lightnings of the judgment-day had 
settled upon us ; but no sooner would people confess 
and begin to make right than we could see Calvary, 
with the sunlight streaming over it. It was wonderful 
the way God led him to deal with souls. He surely had 
the gift of the discernment of spirits in a most marvel- 
ous degree. His flashing black eye could seem to look 
through and through a soul, and read the thoughts and 
intents of the heart. Many a boy, many a girl, many 
a man and woman, have been surprised beyond meas- 
ure to have him tell them what they were thinking about. 
I remember an instance where there was a certain man, 
apparently a friend of the work, claiming to be saved 
and seeking the baptism with the Holy Ghost. He was 
possessed of means, and gave liberally, and apparently 
was honest in his search for the light ; but he never 
came into a meeting that Mr. Knapp, if in charge, was 
not led to preach against and denounce the sin of adul- 
tery, and this man would wince under it. One day, 
Mr. Knapp made the remark to us : 'That man is guilty. 
He never sits down in a meeting but what God begins 
firing me up along that line and making me preach on 
that subject.' Yet the man apparently was walking cir- 
cumspectly. No one could accuse him ; no one could 
bring anything against his name. But this past sum- 
mer the whole story came out, and God had shown 
Mr. Knapp just the truth in the case. This was only 
one instance among hundreds, until people who were 
claiming to be right, and hiding secrets in their hearts 
and lives, as they thought, from the world, were afraid 
to go around him. He beheved and preached and 
taught that that verse in the Scripture, where it says 



226 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

to 'pluck up, to break down, to destroy, and to over- 
throw, to build and to plant' (Jer. i, lo, R. V.), means 
just what it says, and that God wants to make every 
preacher do just this work for Him. But as we said 
before, those who saw Mr. Knapp only in public little 
knew the real man — intense, loving, strong, firm, yet 
withal as tender as a woman, loving his wife and chil- 
dren with a love that few men possess. Often he would 
thank God that he had trusted him with the jewels. 
Stern he was when duty demanded it ; and yet when he 
was forced to correct Lucy, the little one, it was far 
harder on him than it was on her. I have seen him 
bow his head and cry because he had been compelled 
to punish her, and he sought only the love of God and 
the good of the child. Sometimes, when she had been 
naughty, he would take her in his lap with a look of 
ineffable tenderness, press his cheek down against her, 
and hold her tight in his arms, and tell her how grieved 
Jesus was, and how grieved papa was, until the little 
one's heart would ache. Then they would go down 
together and ask Him to forgive her. Even when he 
seemed the very busiest, the patter of little feet would 
arouse him when nothing else would ; and he would 
stop just long enough to take her up and press her 
close against his heart and kiss her and put her down 
again. John, now fourteen, was his mainstay. He loved 
him as few fathers ever loved their children, and any- 
body who had seen him rub his hand caressingly over 
John's face, and look into his eyes, would have realized 
the depth of love he had for him. He called him his 
'comfort' and his 'blessing.' He was always so consider- 
ate. Never thought of himself, but always of others. 
The children grew up with a knowledge of what it 
really is to serve God, with an example such as few 



Lit^K OF Rev. M. W. Knapp 



327 



ever have, — honest, straightforward, unflinching where 
a question of right was considered, indomitable, earnest, 
and yet, withal, with a gentleness and consideration 
which was wonderful. 



''BusiNi:ss Mkthods and Prosperity. 

*'In a wonderful manner God's hand has rested upon 
the work from the very beginning. It was sown with 
prayer and fasting, watered with tears, and an agony 
of desire that God alone might be glorified, and He has 
answered and increased it a hundred-fold. In every case 
the will of the Lord has been learned before any new 
step was taken. In the multiplicity of business complica- 
tions which the rapidly-increasing and wide-spreading 
work have involved, Mr. Knapp relied upon Christ as 
his wisdom, and the Holy Ghost as his Teacher, 
Quickener, and Illuminator, and the cry of his soul was, 
'Through God we shall do valiantly, for He it is that 
shall tread down our enemies.^ 

''When he first began publishing the Revivalist God 
told him what kind of a paper it was to be. It was to 
be clean and pure, held strictly to full salvation lines, no 
stories or religious fiction, and no worldly advertising 
(which is the chief source of revenue to even religious 
papers, many of them). No paid advertising of any kind 
has ever been taken by the Revivalist. When the paper 
was made a weekly. Faith had to stand on tiptoe, but 
she reached high enough to touch the arm of an om- 
nipotent God, and He abundantly answered. No bills 
have ever become due so far but what there was money 
with w^hich to meet them. The subscription-Hst has 
continually increased, and for weeks together, this win- 
ter and spring, there has been an average of four hun- 



328 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

dred new subscribers recorded weekly, with compara- 
tively very few discontinuances. God laid it upon Mr. 
Knapp's heart to give the paper free for one year in 
many instances, where parties were desirous of the 
paper and were unable to pay for it, and we had reason 
to beHeve would really appreciate it ; and as this has been 
done, God has touched the hearts of some of His 
stewards to send in the money for this specific purpose, 
verifying the promise 'He that hath pity upon the poor 
lendeth to the Lord ; and that which he hath given him 
will He pay him again.' (Prov. xix, 17.) A notice 
has been published in the Revivalist continually, asking 
those who did not receive their paper promptly and 
regularly to notify us ; and if there has been any mis- 
take on our part in any way, care is taken to rectify 
the same at once, sending missing numbers or what- 
ever the case required. In the past few years IMr. 
Knapp has published a large number of books and book- 
lets on full salvation lines, but has refused all others. 
No promise of publication is made until the manuscript 
is first received and examined carefully, and if there has 
been any doubt as to its being to the glory of God and 
the advancement of His kingdom to publish it, the 
manuscript has been refused, no matter how great the 
money consideration, and large numbers of books have 
been turned away on this account. Right here it might 
be well to mention that ]\Ir. Knapp entered into a 
covenant with God long years ago that all proceeds 
there might be from the work over and above the 
actual economical expenses of the same, should be 
turned into the treasury of the Lord at once, and be 
used to still further advance the work, laying up noth- 
ing for himself and family, and this has been strictly 
carried out. Although we advertise that we are not re- 



hi^^ oi^ Ri^v. M. W. Knapp. 



329 



sponsible for books lost in the mail, yet invariably, 
where people have paid the money and the books have 
not been received, and notice has been sent us of the 
same, Mr. Knapp has had them resent at his own ex- 
pense. In this way many, many dollars have been lost 
to God's work, but as the responsibility was the Lord's, 
Mr. Knapp felt clear in the matter. Then, too, there 
are thousands of letters in a year coming to us from 
people who are hungry for salvation, for sanctification, 
for Divine healing, for comfort in trouble, for Divine 
guidance, for light on certain subjects, etc., etc. These 
requests have never gone unheeded. Mr. Knapp's heart 
would be so touched over many of them that he would 
groan and pray God to give them just the needed help; 
then some one who had personal touch with God, and 
knew how to reach the Throne, and had the abiding 
presence of the Holy Ghost, would write them a letter 
of sympathy and encouragement, asking God to give 
the message Himself and prepare the heart to receive 
it, and in many instances a booklet covering the especial 
need would be sent free. In this way we have dis- 
tributed thousands of the colportage booklets free, but 
God has bestowed His blessing upon the work, and it 
is increasing abundantly. 

"God has marvelously used these books and book- 
lets and the Revivalist in the salvation, sanctification, 
and upbuilding of souls, and the healing of bodies. Con- 
tinually letters are received from persons who were led 
into the light through reading 'The Double Cure,' 'Out 
of Egypt into Canaan,' or some other of these books 
or booklets, or the Revivalist. One sample copy of the 
Revivalist has repeatedly been the means of leading a 
number of souls into the light of salvation, or into closer 
touch with Jesus, and setting in motion waves of Holy 



330 



A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 



Ghost influences, the outcome of which will never be 
fully realized until we reach the eternal shore. Many 
a struggling soul reaching after higher heights and 
deeper depths of a Savior's love, surrounded by proud, 
worldly Church members having the form of godliness 
and denying the power, — many an honest soul with such 
surroundings has written us, saying: 'The Revivahst 
is all the spiritual food I get outside of God and His 
Word. I love it, and could not do without it. I prize 
it next to my Bible.' It goes as a beacon of light into 
jails, prisons, skmis, rescue homes, tenements, the 
abodes of the poor and the rich. It wends its way 
across the ocean into a number of foreign lands among 
the missionaries, carrying the tidings of a full and free 
salvation. To God alone be all the praise. 

"Years ago, Mr. Knapp made a covenant with God 
that himself and workers would give their time to Him 
as a glad free-will love-ofifering, claiming the promise^ 
'My God shall supply all your needs according to His 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus,' and 'Whatsoever is right 
I will give you.' God has spoken to stenographers and 
other efficient workers for the office and to gifted 
schoolteachers for the Bible-school, when hundreds of 
miles away, who had been used to receiving salaries for 
their work, but whose hearts were burning to fully fol- 
low Jesus, and whispered to them : 'My child, I have 
for thee a more excellent way than thou hast ever 
known. Follow Me to the Mount of Blessings, and I 
w^ll teach thee lessons for which thou wilt praise Me 
through all eternity.' And they have simply looked up 
and said, 'Yes, Lord, I'll go with Thee all the way,' 
and He took them by the hand and led them here, and 
said, 'Behold I have set before thee an open door, and 
no man can shut it;' and entering that open door they 



Lii^K OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^^i 

have found a realm of soul prosperity and victory and 
blessedness beyond anything they could have asked or 
thought. O glory ! One of the office-girls said the 
other evening, 'O, I would rather be here than to be 
in a worldly office with a salary of $ioo a month,' and 
she meant it from the depths of her soul. These 
workers are not like those to be found in worldly 
establishments, where clocks are watched and every- 
thing ready to be dropped the moment the clock 
strikes a certain hour ; but they have the work at 
heart, and, realize that they are doing it unto the 
Lord, and not unto men ; so they work on into the 
evening as long as the needs require or strength will 
permit. O hallelujah for the way of the cross ! It 
is full of glory. 

"Mr. Knapp was indefatigable in his labor. He was 
at it from early morning until late at night, generally 
rising at five o'clock in the morning and studying and 
praying until six ; then morning prayer service until a 
quarter till seven ; then at his work in the office, some- 
tmies so engrossed with the King's business that self, 
loved ones, meals, and sleep were utterly forgotten. 
Many times some one has spoken to him and asked 
him if he was not going to breakfast, and he w^ould 
answer, 'Why, I forgot all about it.' At 3 P. M. he 
w^ould come into the Bible-recitation service with his 
quick step and animated manner, and take hold of it 
with a fervor and zeal which could not help being an 
inspiration to the class. The Holy Ghost gave him an 
originality of manner and method in his teaching which 
was intensely interesting, and calculated to stir up and 
arouse his hearers to greater zeal and diligence. He 
had a way of cornering students who were not right 
with God, until there was absolutely no way out for 



332 



A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 



them but to get down at the foot of the Cross and con- 
fess and repent, or to leave the place. The Holy Ghost 
would lead him out on some line that was evidently 
bearing hard upon somebody, until he would describe 
their case exactly ; then he would remark, Now some 
one is saying, 'There, Brother Knapp is after me again ; 
why can't he leave me alone ?' then he would smile and 
say : 'Yes, you are just the one I mean, if you think 
I am after you. There are people here who know I do 
not mean them. But it is the Holy Ghost that is after 
you, and not Brother Knapp. The Holy Ghost is try- 
ing to dig you out and help you.' No matter how much 
the persons were displeased about it, they would have 
to keep still about it, unless they were willing to con- 
fess and get right, as a word of complaint would be to 
give away the fact that they were just the parties so 
accurately described. 

"The coming of twilight never ended his work. 
Nine, ten, eleven, and even twelve o'clock would some- 
times find him bending over his desk, or engaged in 
some line of work. Many a time we have seen the 
light burning in his private office at two or three in 
the morning, and several of his most beautiful hymns 
were written in the dead of night when every one else 
was asleep. In addition to his other work, for several 
years past he has had a daily service at half-past two 
every afternoon, in charge of either himself or one of 
his workers. When the 'Bible-school and Missionary- 
training Home' were changed to 'God's Bible-school 
and Missionary-training Home,' and the name of the 
Revivalist to 'God's Revivalist,' several wrote him not 
approving of thus using the Divine appellation. He did 
not make this change until satisfied that God was lead- 
ing in it, and would always answer, 'It is God's Re- 



'LiP'E oi< Ri^v. M. W. Knapp. 



333 



vivalist. It is God's Bible-school and Missionary-train- 
ing Home.' Do not men name buildings and institu- 
tions after themselves, thus taking the honor to them- 
selves. Why not let God have the honor for what is 
truly His ? As long as the work is kept pure and clean 
and has the Divine approbation and benediction rest- 
ing upon it, we want to give the honor where it is due. 
I want people to know that there is one place, one paper, 
one school where God is honored as the chief Head, and 
where the work belongs absolutely to Him. It is not 
a Knapp work, or a Rees movement, or any other man's, 
but God's. We are simply God's agents that He in His 
providence has permitted to carry on the work for a 
time. Since his departure this truth has been wonder- 
fully manifested. If it had been a man-made movement 
it would have died and been buried in the casket with 
him ; but it is of God, and is sweeping on, 'as fair as 
the moon, as clear as the sun, and as terrible as an army 
with banners.' " 

Look what a poor minister without a dollar of capital 
has been able to accomplish in the name of Jehovah. 
Where is there a parallel to these glorious achievements 
recorded below? 

"God's Wonders. 

"For years backslidden holiness preachers, carnal 
professors and ecclesiastics, have been prophesying the 
downfall of the work here ; but, like Nehemiah, we have 
gone on building up the kingdom. Although Brother 
Knapp was a timid, bashful boy, God's grace so changed 
him that the Holy Ghost used him to live and teach and 
preach and write full salvation, until thousands have re- 
ceived the light, and are walking in it. 



334 



A Hi:ro oi^ Faith and Praye:r. 



"During his sanctified life, principally in the last nine 
years, God has led him most marvelously. The follow- 
ing is an exact Hst of books and booklets pubHshed by 
him, and now in circulation preaching Jesus : 

''BOOKS. 

No. Printed. Price. 

I,000 
20,671 



8,357 
5,630 
4,357 
3,500- 
3,037 
3,026, 
2,017 

7,047 
2,562 

3,570 

2,556 

2,378 
2,083, 
3,810 
4,831 
501 
1,526 

8,485 
1,032 
4,030 
1,000 

25,492, 

1,999, 

1,042 

4,572 

510 

15,000 
6,665 



Bible Readings,' B. S. Taylor ;^i 00 

Christ Crowned Within,' M. W. Knapp 75 

Commentary,' W. B. Godbey : 

Vol. I, ' Revelation ' i 00 

Vol. II, ' Hebrews Jude ' i 25 

Vol. Ill, ' Ephesians-Philemon ' i 00 

Vol. IV, * Corinthians-Galatians ' i 50 

Vol. V, 'Acts-Romans ' i 50 

Vol. VI, ' Gospels ' I 50 

Vol. VII, 'Gospels' I 50 

Faith Papers,' S. A. Kean 40 

Fire From Heaven,' S. C. Rees i 00 

Footprints of Jesus in the Holy Land' (A companion 

volume to the Commentary), W. B. Godbey i 00 

Food for Lambs ; or, Leading Children to Christ,' A. M. 

Hills 80 

From Romanism to Pentecost,' J. S. Dempster .... 50 

Holding Out,' E. P. Ellison 35 

Heart Talks,' B. Carradine i 00 

Holiness and Power,' A. M. Hills i 00 

Holiness Triumphant,' M. W. Knapp 80 

Holy Land,' W. B. Godbey 40 

Impressions,' M. W. Knapp 50 

Jesus Only,' Carradine, Rees, and others 80 

' Lightning Bolts from Pentecostal Skies,' M. W. Knapp . i 00 

Memorial Papers — Life of S. A, Keen,' Mrs. Keen , . 80 

' Out of Egypt into Canaan,' M. W. Knapp 80 

■ Pentecostal Sanctification,' S. A. Keen 30 

' Pentecostal Papers,' ,8. A. Keen 50 

'Praise Papers,' S. A. Keen 30 

■ Pentecostal Light,' A. M. Hills 50 

' Revival Tornadoes,' M. W. Knapp I 00 

'Revival Kindlings,' M. W. Knapp I 00 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



335 



No. Printed. Price. 

1,517. * Shining Way,' H. T. Davis $0 7S 

1,822, ' Sweet - smelling Myrrh,' Life of Madame Guyon. 

Abridged. Abbie C. Morrow 60 

1,015. ' Spiritual Gifts and Graces,' W. B. Godbey 25 

6,182, 'Salvation Papers,' S. A. Keen 35 

6,581. * Soul Food,' G. D. Watson 50 

1,028. ' Trumpet Calls to the Unsaved,' Byron J. Rees .... 50 

4,052. * The Better Way, ' B. Carradine 75 

4,066. * The Sanctified Life,' B. Carradine i OO 

1,000. * The Old Paths,' Mrs. Vorn Holtz . . . , i 00 

2,005. * The Old, Old Story,' Abbie C. Morrow 80 

1,000. * The River of Death,' M. W. Knapp 50 

2,000. ' The- Double Cure,' M. W. Knapp 40 

5,040. * The Ideal Pentecostal Church,' S. C. Rees 50 

1,919. ' The Heart-cry of Jesus,' Byron J. Rees 50 

1,541. * The Gibeonites,' B, S. Taylor 30 

516. ' The Whosoever Gospel,' A, M. Hills 50 

1,710. 'Victory,' W. B. Godbey 40 

1,524. 'Word and Work of David J. Lewis' i 00 

10,000. ' Wrecked or Rescued,' A salvation chart. Key to The 

River of Death, M. W, Knapp 60 

2,065. • Work of Faith through Geo. Miiller,' Abbie C. Morrow . 50 

"SONG-BOOKS. 

' Tears and Triumphs,' Nos. i and 2, Combined : 
Round Note, Board, each 35 

12,800. Round Note, Board, per dozen, prepaid 4 00 

Round Note, Board, per 100, not prepaid ....... 30 00 

Round Note, Muslin, each 30 

15,450. Round Note, Muslin, per dozen 3 40 

Round Note, Muslin, per 100, not prepaid 25 00 

Shape Note, Board, each 35 

Shape Note, Board, per dozen, prepaid 4 00 

Shape Note, Board, per 100, not prepaid 30 00 

Shape Note, Muslin, each 30 

Shape Note, Muslin, per dozen, prepaid 3 40 

Shape Note, Muslin, per 100, not prepaid 25 00 

* Salvation Melodies.' Choice selections from 'Tears and Triumphs,' 
10 cents ; $6 per 100, not prepaid 



336 



A Hkro of Faith and Prayi:r. 



No. Prin 
4,000. 
3,500. 
5,014- 

1,000. 
6,000. 

3,057. 
2,000. 
4,030. 
6,050. 
1,576. 
1,041. 
7,000. 
4,201. 
3,020. 
3,000. 
5,057- 

2,047. 
3,000. 
2,863. 
3,000. 
6,079. 
5,000. 

7,037- 
12,037. 

8,073. 

3,000. 
1,020. 
3,000. 
2,028. 

3,000. 

6,051. 
25,080. 



*'COLPORTAGE HOLINESS BOOKLETS. 

ted. Price. 

*A Flame of Fire,' Life of Bramwell. Abridged . . . .^010 

'Back to the Bible,' M. W. Knapp 10 

'Burning Coals.' Abridgment of Rees's "Fire from 

Heaven " 10 

' Christ Crowned Within,' M. W. Knapp 25 

' Death, Hell, and Judgment,' B. S. Taylor 10 

' Electric Shocks from Pentecostal Batteries,' 20 

'Electric Shocks, No. 2' 10 

'Flashes from Lightning Bolts,' M.W. Knapp ..... 15 

' Food for Lambs.' Abridged. A. M. Hills 10 

' From Romanism to Pentecost,' J. S. Dempster .... 10 

' Full Salvation,' B. S. Taylor 25 

' Holiness Triumphant,' M. W. Knapp 25 

' Holy Land,' W. B. Godbey 10 

' Impressions,' M. W. Knapp 20 

'Jesus Only,' Carradine, Godbey, Rees, and others ... 25 
'Joy and Rejoicing,' Abbie C. Morrow and C. W. McCros- 

san 10 

' Light and Shadow,' F. W. Beers 15 

* Morning Glories.' For the young. Abbie C. Morrow . 20 

' Out of Egypt into Canaan,' M. W. Knapp 25 

' Paul to the Thessalonians,' From Godbey' s Commentary . 10 

' Pentecostal Light,' A. M. Hills 10 

' Pentecostal Preachers.' From 'Lightning Bolts,' M. W. 

Knapp . 10 

' Pentecostal Sanctification, ' S. A. Keen 10 

' Pentecostal Wine from Bible Grapes,' Carradine, Rees, 

Godbey, and others 20 

' Pentecostal Messengers,' Carradine, Rees, Godbey, and 

others 10 

' Pentecostal Kernels from Old Corn,' David B. Updegraff, 10 

'Pentecost.' From Commentary, W. B. Godbey .... 10 

' Pentecostal Dynamite — Life of Abbott ' 10 

'Pentecostal Aggressiveness.' Why I held a forbidden 

camp-meeting, M. W. Knapp 10 

' Revival Fire from C. G. Finney.' Letters on revivals to 

ministers and laymen 

' Salvation Papers,' S. A. Keen 10 

' Salvation Melodies,' from ' Tears and Triumphs' ... 10 



Lir'E OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 337 

No. Printed. Price. 

2,000. ' Shining Way,' H. T. Davis $o 25 

8,000. ' Soul Rest,' as taught by John Wesley, * Sin and Repent- 
ance in Believers, ' and * Other Sermons ' 10 

4,514. * Sparks from Revival Kindlings,' M. W. Knapp .... 10 

14,078. * Spiritual Gifts and Graces,' W. B. Godbey 10 

4,000. * Soul Laws in Sexual, Social, and Spiritual Life,' F. S. 

Heath 10 

2,009. 'Steps to Holiness,' F. L. Niles 10 

4,524. 'Sweet-smelling Myrrh.' Life of Madame Guyon. 

Abridged. Abbie C. Morrow 20 

2.032. ' The Better Way. ' Abridged. B. Carradine 10 

22,500. ' The Double Cure,' M. W. Knapp 10 

8,205. 'The Sanctified Life.' Abridged. B. Carradine . ... 10 

6,031. ' The Spirit of Jesus,' E. H. Dashiell 10 

7,000. 'The River of Death,' M. W. Knapp 15 

10,007. 'The Gibeonites,' B. S. Taylor 10 

4,025. 'The Canaanites,' B. S. Taylor 10 

2,038. ' The Holy Nation,' R. L. Selle 10 

4,000. 'The Ideal Pentecostal Church.' Abridged. S. C. Rees . 10 

500. ' The Old, Old Story,' Abbie C. Morrow 25 

5,000. 'The Return of Jesus,' Godbey and Rees 10 

5,007. 'The Work of Faith through Geo. Miiller,' Abbie C. 

Morrow 20 

6.033. * The Heart-cry of Jesus,' Byron J. Rees 10 

2,046. * Trumpet-calls to the Unsaved,' Byron J. Rees 20 

5,117. 'Types of the Spirit,' G. D. Watson 10 

16,723. 'Victory,' W. B, Godbey . . 10 

4,000. < The Whosoever Gospel for the Unconverted,' A. M. Hills, 10 

''Besides the above books and booklets, millions of 
tracts, and last year over t, 188,000 copies of God's 
Revivalists have gone forth. 

''We receive now on an average of 300 letters a 
day, and write about 350. 

"Besides this, God has called, prepared, and sent 
forth from this work missionaries to India, Africa, and 
Japan, and He has here in the Bible-school, preparing 
for foreign fields, about twenty-five more. 
22 



338 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

"His blessing has from the first rested upon the 
work. In answer to prayer, He has sent in over $17,000 
in cash and nearly one hundred boys and girls from all 
parts of the Union to be trained for His harvet-fields. 

''But, beloved, the work does not stop here. God 
is leading on to greater victory. By June 20th, the 
opening-day of Salvation Park Camp-meeting, the 
Rescue Home will be completed, and the girls^ dormi- 
tory, containing forty-four bedrooms and a dining-room 
seating four hundred will be well under way. O, God 
is back of this work ! His hand is on every part. 

"Not one worker receives a cent of salary. We trust 
God to supply our needs. We are pouring out our lives 
on the work, giving, many days, from fifteen to twenty 
hours, and always from ten to fifteen hours. The love 
of God so constrains us that we feel it would be a great 
privilege to just die in the work it' only souls shall be 
saved and sanctified and healed. 

"Beloved, because of the great responsibility and 
magnitude of it, we need your prayers, your love, your 
co-operation. Shall we not have it?" 

Of his own books one hundred and thirty-eight 
thousand were published. He was joint author with 
others of us in books that had a circulation of twenty- 
six thousand. This was besides his song-books, of 
which some three hundred thousand were published. It 
is all a marvelous story of heroic achievements by a 
little man, weak physically, and often an invalid, with 
no money, and NO PARTNER BUT GOD. 



CHAPTER XX. 
OUTPOURINGS OF SYMPATHY AND SORROW. 

**This truth came borne with bier and pall, 
I felt it, when I sorrowed most : 
'Tis better to have loved and lost 
'Than never to have loved at all. 

How pure at heart and sound in head, 
With what divine affections bold. 
Should be the man whose thoughts would hold 

An hour's communion with the dead !" — Tennyson. 

"God gives us love. Something to love 
He lends us ; but, when love is grown 
To ripeness, that on which it throve 
Falls off, and love is left alone. 

This is the curse of time. Alas ! 

In grief I am not all unlearn' d. 
Once through mine own doors Death did pass ; 

One went, who never hath returned." — Tennyson. 

I think the saddest telegram I ever received but 
one read as follows : 

"Cincinnati, O., December 8, 1901. 
''Father went to Jesus at midnight. Memorial service, 
December ipth. John F. Knapp." 

I was only one of thousands around the world to 
whom this news brought great sorrow. When a man's 
life was spent in works of benevolence for the honor 
of Jesus, and he touched others only for good, and then 
his departure is greatly mourned, one may know it was 

339 



340 A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

an unselfish sorrow, and that the mourned was great. 
Kings might be mourned by the court favorites who 
basked in the sunshine of his favor. Moneyed princes 
might be mourned by those who fed upon his bounty 
or Hved in his service. But such a man as Knapp, who 
touched men only spiritually ; who fed not so much their 
bodies as their souls ; who made no appeal to self- 
interest, — when such a man is translated, and is greatly 
mourned at home and abroad, over continents and 
across seas, it means much. 

The following are but samples of hundreds of let- 
ters of condolence and expressions of grief at their loss : 

"Blanchester, O., December lo, 1901. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — May the God of all comfort 
be with you ! is my prayer. I can not tell you how 
shocked I was to hear that Brother Knapp had left us. 
It seems that his work must have been finished, or 
God would have healed him. Yes, I hiozv He would. I 
know it seems that we can not get along without him ; 
but God knows all about it, and we are so glad that 
we can leave it all with Him. I am praying that, all 
this hour, while you are having the service at the chapel, 
the blessed Holy Spirit may so hover over you and 
that Jesus Himself may be manifestly present. I should 
like to have been with you to-day, but my father's 
health is such that I do not leave home only for a few 
hours at a time. 

"The people of Blanchester are praying for you to- 
day. I extend my deepest sympathy to you, and the 
children, and Mother Knapp. May you find Jesus a 
'very present help in time of trouble.' I hope that all 
the other sick may soon recover. Indeed, the holiness 
people feel like sheep without a shepherd ; but the Chief 



LiFK OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. -^^i 

Shepherd will send us some one to carry on the work. 
Though we will miss dear Brother Knapp, we know 
it will not be long till Jesus will come, and Brother 
Knapp will be with Him, and the multitudes of saints. 
May you feel the Everlasting Arms about you ! May 
the dreadful disease not get any more headway on 
Mount of Blessings ! 

"Your sister in deepest sympathy and perfect love. 

'7ulia F. Randolph." 

''Sunday Eve. 

"My Dearly Beloved in Him, — *As one whom his 
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.' 

"How I thank Him for the knowledge that He can 
and does comfort as no other can ! My heart has been 
much with you all day, and thought I would have writ- 
ten again ere this ; but, precious one, you can not know 
what a blow the going home of my dear, dear brother 
in Jesus was to me. I had the letter in left hand read- 
ing it, and when I saw what it said my left hand could 
not hold the letter, but just dropped down by my side, 
and, as I read on, my whole left side was strangely 
affected, and I had to have a doctor by the afternoon. 
I can't begin to tell you how I have suffered, and did 
so earnestly ask Him not to let you suffer in that way. 
I am sure, surrounded by so many loving hearts, the 
volume of precious prayers that continually go up to 
the Throne are heard graciously, and are sustaining 
your heart. My love and sympathy has been going 
forth as never before ; it seems nothing has ever touched 
me so deeply as this strange dealing of God. I am 
still dumb in silence, and do n't know what to say or 
think ; just have a queer, dumb feehng. I stand in 
silence before Him. 



342 



A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 



"But He has made your sorrow my sorrow. How 
very sweet and precious to be able to weep with those 
that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice, bound 
in the same spirit, thus bearing one another's burdens 
and fulfilHng the law of Christ ! How I long to just 
fold you close in my arms, and just love your pain all 
away. While that love is too deep for words, it has been 
a real trial to me in trying to sympathize or tell you 
in feeble words how truly I have entered into your loss, 
your sorrow, your responsibiHty, knowing that it will 
be so hard on the dear, tired body and nerves. 

"But in it all I feel He has made manifest His love 
and strength in a new way, and so I can trust His hand 
so strong, His love that so planeth naught but good. 
My poor heart has almost given way; especially much 
crying always upsets it. For days, I have had the doc- 
tor twice ; for, darling, my very mind is so affected that 
I can not even trust, just can't use my head enough. 
And His blessing on the doctor's coming was so marked 
that we feel that it was approved of Him who knows 
my heart and desire to trust Him fully. Do tell dear 
Veda, precious child, that I thank her for that beauti- 
ful, beautiful letter, and that her love is all returned, 
and that I love her dearly in Him who maketh us one, 
even though not seeing each other in the flesh. I had 
said so many times of late to my dear one, 'How I wish 
I could spend Christmas with Brother and Sister 
Knapp !' My heart has so longed to go. How I wish 
I could still go and comfort your heart in these coming 
hard days ! But He will go before thee ; and so it is all 
going to be right, and I so thank Him for it. I must 
stop now; but my love and prayer continues. 

"Yours in Him, Noah." 



LiFF, OF Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 



343 



'To Mrs. M. W. Knapp,— The Holiness Church of 
Havana, 111., sends these words of condolence to Mrs. 
Knapp and children, to the mother of Brother Knapp, 
to the students and teachers of the Bible-school. We 
feel like calling after him, 'My father, my father !' as 
Elisha did after Elijah when he was taken up. (2 Kings 
ii, 12.) We trust that some one will take up his mantle, 
and, in a measure, supply the deficiency. And while 
we say, 'How can it be?' God's Word comes to us: 
'Blessed in the sight of the Lord is the death of His 
saints, for they rest from their labors and their works 
do follow them.' Jesus comes to comfort all that mourn. 
'Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.' 

"Mena B. VonHolt, Secretary. 

"Edward VonHolt, Pastor. 

"T. J. Fuson, Elder." 

"Denver, Colo., December 13, 1901. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — It was a great shock to this 
home and to our hearts when the Revivalist reached 
us yesterday, announcing the fact that the Editor, our 
beloved Brother Knapp, had gone to live with God. 
It is our loss, but his gain. Heaven has received an- 
other martyr. We mingle our tears with yours, and 
ask that the Everlasting Arms may sustain you in this 
hours of grief. Lovingly, Mrs. Kent White." 

"Normal, 111., December 18, 1901. 
"My Dear Sister Knapp, — It was not till Monday 
night the intelligence of your husband's transfer to glory 
reached me. I have hardly been so surprised, and not 
often more deeply moved. Surely there never was a 
case of more literal transfer from labor to reward. I 



344 



A Hi:ro of Faith and Prayer. 



have had a profound confidence in Brother Knapp's in- 
tegrity, and his activities for God seemed a fascination. 
I know of no one who seemed more perfectly absorbed 
in his own business. ]\Iy heart is sensibly bereft, and I 
wonder at this striking dispensation. Surely this world 
can not but have been made better by contact with his 
burning soul. His intensified sympathy with Christ in 
the recovery of the lost has left on your hands and 
heart interests which God only can enable you to carry. 
Be assured of Christian love for you in this great be- 
reavement, and prayer for unearthly power to be given 
you. The Lord, even Jesus, bless and keep you and 
your children, and the precious souls under your care ! 
''Yours in holy fellowship, M. L. Haney." 

This is from Rev. William Taylor, who, with his 
wife, writes : 

"Merrill, IMich., February 15, 1902. 

"Dear Sister Minnie, — Yours of January 9th, with 
request to write of Brother Knapp's life, is a difficult 
task for me. In the first place, I dislike to write, and 
since I have been on the farm I have scarcely written 
anything. My mind and memory are not what they 
were when I first knew you, and mental effort is very 
exhausting in its effects upon me. I never could endure 
the strain of work as ]\Iartin could. ]\Iy first acquaint- 
ance with ]vlartin was while visiting at the Glenns'. I 
was then perhaps most impressed by his modesty. No 
one at that time, I think, would or could have divined 
the mighty forces that were latent in his active mind. 
Upon acquaintance with him and his good wife, our 
friendship grew. He chose the work of the ministry 
under the leading of the Holy Spirit, and went to his first 
appointment in the Michigan Conference at Potterville. 



hi^t OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



345 



His appearance at this time was not calculated to make 
a very favorable impression upon a congregation ready 
to criticise the first appearance of a new pastor and 
preacher. He owned no horse or buggy; but Brother 
Glenn had fitted him out with one not very stylish, but 
answered very well. He rode through and entered 
Potterville in a drenching rain ; was wet through ; found 
a place to stay and dry his clothes. In the morning 
they were all wrinkled, shirt stained, and collar limp. 
In this condition he stood before his first congregation, 
took a big text, and preached what seemed to them a 
small sermon. There was great disappointment. They 
talked of not receiving him. When this was made 
known to him, he quietly but firmly notified them that 
he was there, not of his own choice, but by appoint- 
ment of the Michigan Conference, and should stay until 
the bishop relieved him. Something, I think, in those 
earnest eyes caused them wisely to conclude to await 
further developments. His wife, a sweet singer, came. 
He soon got his bearings, stood the full-time limit, re- 
vived all on the circuit, finances well up, and much re- 
gret was expressed that he could not continue his work 
among them. 

''Some time before our friendship commenced, I ex- 
perienced the blessing of entire sanctification. Martin 
used frequently, when with us, to ask questions in re- 
gard to the experience ; what it would do for you. The 
Bible statements he found for himself. I can not tell 
how long a time was thus spent, but long enough to 
get very hungry for the enduement of power, the bap- 
tism with the Holy Ghost. I received a letter from 
him while he was pastor at Elsie, requesting wife and 
self to come and assist in some holiness-meetings. We 
went, and there he gave in, wholly consecrated all to 



t^a6 a H^ro of Faith and Praykr. 

the Lord, and the Holy Ghost took full possession. 
From that time until life ceased, supereminent energy 
manifested itself in all he did or said. We worked to- 
gether often in those days, laboring hand in hand and 
holding sweet communion together. Rev. B. W. Day 
sent him a request to come to Bettsville, Ohio. He 
wished me to accompany him ; we had a blessed time. 
This was at the commencement of his evangelistic work. 
The Spirit of God was leading, and he obediently fol- 
lowed. Even then the idea of using the press, train- 
ing work, was taking shape in his mind, and I have 
often wondered how so intense a nature could wait ; 
but he knew when the appointed time came, and, so 
far as human vision can see, did not fail to measure 
up to what the Lord committed to his care. Doubt- 
less ere this he has heard the 'Well done !' of the Mas- 
ter. It could be well said of Martin, 'He spared not 
himself.' Often, when we were together, he would 
work to exhaustion. Once I went to the depot to take 
him to my home. He lay stretched out upon the seat, 
looking sick enough to be in bed. I said : 'Martin, 
what made you come? You are sick.' He said, 'I 
had fever all night, and Lucy thought I ought not to 
leave home ; but I make it a rule to go as far as I can. 
I am here, and think I can preach to-night.' And he 
did, looking almost like a dead man, except for those 
burning eyes. But the Lord blessed the message; for 
the people thought if a man, evidently sick, felt it im- 
portant to deliver His message, it was also important 
that they listen to it. His was a wonderful life, and 
marvelous results followed, because he was not dis- 
obedient to the heavenly vision. We loved each other, 
and our friendship and communication were sweet. I 



Lii^e: oi^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^47 

am in my seventy-third year, and not very far from 
the city whose Builder and Maker is God. I think 
there will be a shout in glory when we meet one an- 
other again. Now I must stop. My head throbs like 
a hammer beating, with just this little scrawl. 

''We think Martin made no mistake when he left 
the paper in your hands. It is excellent in matter and 
make-up. We pray for you that, amid your toils and 
cares, God may abundantly bless and comfort you. 
Our love to John, Martin's mother, Anna, and Lucy, 
whom we, have never seen. I do not know that what 
I have written will be of any use to you. If not, burn 
it up. 

"I am ever your brother in Christ, 

"Wm. Taylor." , 

''Lincoln, Neb., December 16, 1901. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — Just read to-day of the trans- 
lation of Brother Knapp. How mysterious are the ways 
of Providence ! God has some greater and more im- 
portant work for him to do in the heavenly world, or 
He would not have taken him, in the prime of his earthly 
life, from the great work he was doing on earth. He 
has put in operation wonderful movements for good 
that will go on forever. He did the work of several 
men. Overworked, without knowing it, he fell under 
the heavy load. But he fell all covered with glory. 
While you mourn, you have reason to be religiously 
proud of the brilliant record your noble husband has 
left behind. God bless you, my sister ! God bless the 
Bible-school and God's Revivalist. May the mantle 
of Brother Knapp fall upon his successors ! 

"Your brother, W. T. Davis." 



2^8 A Hero of Faith axd Ji^rayer. 

" 154 Bon Bazaarst, The Apostolic Bible-School, 

"Calcutta, India, January 7, 1902. 

"Our Dear Sister Knapp and Bible-school, — Blessed 
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who 
comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be 
able to comfort them that are in trouble, by the com- 
fort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God, 
]\Iay His rich grace be upon you all ! This is the ear- 
nest prayer of your umvorthy brother so far away. 

"The Revivalist, with heading stating our dear 
brother's translation to the skies, has just reached us, 
and we hasten to pen you a few lines. Our own feel- 
ings are mingled with tears of sorrow, and yet of glad- 
ness, too difficult to explain ; but we wish we were in 
your midst this morning, to speak heart to heart with 
you of the many beautiful things God is giving us re- 
garding the same. From our standpoint we can but 
feel sad and sorrowful to think of one whom God was 
using so extensively, and who was proving such a val- 
liant hero of the Cross of Jesus, and who was an inspi- 
ration to those of us who have met him, to be true to 
God, to leave us at this time, when the battle seems 
the hottest and the enemy is raging. Yet we must 
gladly say 'Amen' to the will of our God. 

''God knows I heartily sympathize with our dear 
Sister Knapp and the children, and my heart went up 
to God in earnest prayer that He would sustain and 
comfort and keep you all, as only our God can, and 
that you would remember that all His many promises 
for those in like affliction and sorrow 'can not be 
broken.' 

"I never shall cease to thank God that He ever let 
me meet two angels of mercy in the darkest hours of 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



349 



all my life — Brothers Knapp and Rees ; and I will carry 
with me throughout eternity one little message given 
me from the lips of Brother Knapp, that served to 
change the whole course of my life for God's glory ; 
and at this time God knows how sadly I feel his absence, 
as I had counted on him as one to whom I could write 
for counsel, and who would understand me as few oth- 
ers could. But, glory to God, our loss is his gain, and 
we sorrow not as having no hope ; for to us death is no 
longer death. It is a portal of a fuller and higher life ! 
It is the arctic chamber of the King's palace. It is to 
depart and be with Christ, which is far better. It is to 
leave behind the companionship of temptation and suf- 
fering, and to grasp the hands of angels, and to sit 
down with the saints of God above. What a glorious 
prospect ! The suffering now is out of all proportions 
to the glory hereafter. One hour in that blessed home 
above will outweigh a lifetime of trial. Brother Knapp's 
departure will give us all a keener longing for His pres- 
ence and kingdom. Home is brighter and more attract- 
ive to me to-day than ever before. Hallelujah ! 

*'And now let me exhort you all to take courage. 
Take courage, Sister Knapp. Take courage. Mother 
Knapp. Take courage, students at the Bible-school. 
The work that God has begun He will perform. While 
awful battles are to be fought, and cities to be taken, 
and the truth heralded in every part of the globe, yet 
glorious victories await us. The gates of hell shall 
not prevail against you. More than that, you shall 
prevail against hell. I want to say to you, there is n't 
a demon that can stand before you. The Son of God 
gives you authority over all demons, sicknesses, yea, 
all manner of diseases, I care not what they are. I am 
satisfied, if you and I will go to the uttermost parts 



350 



A Hi:ro op^ Faith and Prayp:r. 



of the Bible in our life, and stand upon John x, 35, our 
God will, through the students at the Bible-school, go 
to the uttermost parts of the world with a pure gospel 
as in the days of the apostles. I am sure the spirit 
of Brother Knapp would say to us to-day, yea, the 
Holy Ghost does say, 'Go forward.' 

"The Church at Calcutta sends messages of sym- 
pathy, and echoes of victory to you all. 

"I am your brother and servant, S. Bufes." 

''Greencastle, Ind., December 10, 1901. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — Yours of yesterday, convey- 
ing the intelligence of the departure from earth of your 
precious husband and our dear Brother Knapp, just 
received. 

"I like the way you express it : 'Called home to be 
with Jesus, whom he so dearly loved and served.' 

"Loving him, we rejoice for him; for to depart and 
be with Christ is far better for him than to abide in 
this tabernacle. Loving him, we sorrow not even as 
others which have no hope. The last time I saw Brother 
Knapp was in Chicago last May. I was in attendance 
at the Holiness General x'Vssembly. The house was 
crowded, and I was content to find standing-room. But 
Brother Knapp, seeing me, instantly vacated the chair 
he was occupying beside the pulpit, and insisted upon 
my taking the seat while he sat down upon the floor 
at my feet. See the picture. Such an act of Christian 
courtesy and brotherly kindness was greatly appreci- 
ated by me, especially because of the peculiar circum- 
stances then surrounding us. It showed a true heart 
and fraternal spirit in Brother Knapp, and will never 
be forgotten by me. 

''Your letter reached me too late for me to be able 



LiFi: OF Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 



351 



to get to you in time for the funeral services, or I would 
surely have been with you. I am certain that Jesus is 
present — very present — a very present Help in this your 
greatest time of trouble. May His grace prove suffi- 
cient for you and yours and his ! 

"In and for Jesus, E. F. Walker." 

"Tokio, Japan, January 20, 1902. 

"Our Dearly-beloved Sister, — We find ourselves 
face to face with a loss of words, and our pen fails to 
say what is in our hearts. We do love you, dear Sister 
Knapp, more, and more, and more. We shall never be 
able to tell you what you and dear Brother Knapp 
have been to us ; what strength and encouragement have 
your letters been to us this first trying year in a hea- 
then land. His words of encouragement have made 
us take fresh hope through man a testing hour. But 
he is not ; for God took him. Amen. 

"I can just imagine how up in glory, on December 
7th, the angels were putting the last finishing touches 
to a mansion, while one was summoned to go quickly 
to Mount of Blessings. Perhaps there was to be a great 
Convention, and Wesley and Fletcher and Moody and 
Paul thought Brother Knapp ought to be there. O 
glory! Death, where is thy sting? 

*'By God's grace we mean to be true until Jesus 
comes. Our faith is in Him. We learned long ago that 
we live by faith, and not by joy. There is not a shade 
of fear in our hearts. He w^ho sent us will care for 
us. Xo, I am with you alway.' 

**We expect to see Mount of Blessings grow^ and 
grow; for it is our Heavenly Father's planting, and 
shall not be rooted up. Our prayers are continually 
with you. We know God will give grace for every 



252 A He:ro of Faith and Prayer. 

trial, and wisdom for every duty, and money for every 
need. We believe it, for He is just the same God in 
America as in Japan. 

' We have an anchor that keeps the soul 
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll, 
Fastened to the Rock that can not move, 
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.' 

''We know our Father will be more to you than He 
has ever been. Sometimes I think He permits us to 
walk through lonely paths that we may lean more heav- 
ily upon Him. He is so anxious to see these heart- 
vines bear luscious fruit, and sometimes He prunes most 
deeply, and often around its roots must be laid the ashes 
of the dearest and best-loved. But as one version ren- 
ders it, Xo, I am your companion every day.' Praise 
His dear name ! Our best love and sympathy is with 
you ; underneath are the Everlasting Arms. 

''Give our love to dear Mother Knapp. We know 
how heavy the trial at her age. And please tell her 
Isa. xlvi, 4, for me. 

"Till Jesus comes, 

"Charlie and Lettie Cowman." 

Mrs. Cowman says : 

** * God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold : 
We must not tear their close shut leaves apart ; 
Time will reveal their calyxes of gold.' 

"When the Mount of Blessings' large family are all 
gathered home, perhaps some day Jesus will sit down 
in our midst and tell us why He could not wait longer 
for Brother Knapp. . 

"Father, we do not understand ; but it is all right ; 
our faith is firm in God. He it was who sent us, and 



Lii^E OF^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



353 



He will never leave. He who feeds the sparrows will 
feed and clothe us as we need ; so do not be anxious 
about us, for God will provide. He will take care of 
every part of the work begun, and carry it through to 
its completion. Mount of Blessings was Divinely 
planted, and will go on. We have no fears. I mean 
to be true to God, and carry out here, as faithfully as 
I know, just what God would have me, and what 
Brother Knapp would have wished." 

Brother Hirst writes : 

'*We are glad you did not cable, as it would have 
kept us" a whole month in suspense, not to speak of 
the cost, which is considerable. I was completely car- 
ried away with grief for a couple of days ; but the cable 
of Divine love was only drawing taut. It holds secure. 
And we realize in a deeper, tenderer way the truth of 
Sister Storey's comforting exhortation on the margin 
of the letter. Brother Knapp is gone, but Jesus Is still 
on the throne. We now look up and smile through 
oft-gathering tears, and look more earnestly for the 
coming of the Bridegroom. He can now say : 

** * With mercy and with judgment 
My web of time He moves, 
And aye the dews of sorrow 
Were lustered by His love. 

I bless the Hand that guided 

I bless the Heart that planned, 
Now throned where glory dwelleth 

In Immanuel's land.' 

''Somehow it seems that he is much nearer us 

than he was at the Mount of Blessings. O what an 

inspiration to walk through the world and have one so 

near dwelling in the heavenlies ! Surely, beloved, after 

23 



354 A Hero op Faith and Prayer. 

looking back on us all, he has started off to explore 
with angelic escort the territory that is all ablaze with 
the glory of the Lamb. He has dropped all weakness 
and pain, and can now scale the Beulah Heights of glory 
with no weariness. I dare say he can sing now with 
voice as well as pen. Glory to God ! 

"We are all cast upon God for the development of 
that princely faith he so exemplified and fathered in 
us all. I had a presentiment before I left home of his 
early departure, but would not heed it." 

**Hoodstock P. O. Cape, 

" South Africa, January 8, 1902. 

''Dear Sister Knapp, — Who is a Rock hke our God? 
Little did I think, when Mabel came dancing in this 
morning with letters from home, that in a few min- 
utes our eyes would be full of blinding tears and our 
hearts well-nigh overwhelmed. There is time before 
the mail goes only to send a few words, and I am not 
fit just now to say much either. 

''Dear Brother Knapp ! I did not realize before 
how much I loved you. I was hoping and longing for 
the time when you might come out here for a season ; 
but henceforth our fellowship must be in heaven. 

"O let us sink down in the will of God. He knows 
there is no rebellion in my grief. Last week we were 
filled with joy over our dear sister coming, that we 
might not be utterly cast down now. How good is 
the Lord to temper the wind to shorn lambs ! My heart 
goes out to you all. God bless you all. May the Di- 
vine arms sustain thee, my sister ! The remembrance 
of thy faith and love sheds a rainbow on my tears. Even 
now I can say, Bless the Lord ! Put your arms around 
John, and give him a kiss for me. Tell him to be of 



Lii'K OF Rtv. M. W. Knapp. 



355 



good courage. How vividly I recall my own father's 
going away ! Dear John, I look up after thy father's 
track to the skies, and my heart cries out, 'My father! 
my father ! the chariots of Israel and the horsemen 
thereof !' O that a double portion of his spirit may rest 
on thee and me ! Yes, on us all. We are grateful 
that dear Brother Godbey and Sister Storey were with 
you. Our hearts will all be closer together in the pre- 
cious love of Jesus, and we will more closely follow our 
beloved as he followed Jesus. It will not be long. Sis- 
ter Knapp, it will not be long. We gaze up through 
our tears and understand, as never before, the rapture 
and the meeting in the air when Jesus comes. My 
heart has been comforted in writing. May you be com- 
forted with the comfort wherewith I am also comforted 
of God! 

"God bless you all richly. Shall we not reckon 
among the 'blessings' of the Mount the blessing of sor- 
row? O, I am glad that Sister Ferle and Sister Fin- 
ney knew before they started. 

"Thine is the tender love of Jesus. 

"Wm. N. Hirst." 

"The following words from Brother M. W. Knapp, 
coming, as they did, so recently, and so short a time 
before the announcement of his death, will be read, no 
doubt, with interest by all our Herald readers. In a 
business communication to the ofifice under date of 
November 20th we have the following: 

" 'Dear Brother Richmond, — May the Lord abun- 
dantly bless and prosper His work in your hands. I 
thank you for your kind words of brotherly love. If 
there is anything in this world that encourages me to 
go on, it is to know that there are a few of God's 



2^6 A Hero of Faith axd Prayer 

children who are backing me by their love and prayers. 
God is wonderfully blessing and giving us victory. I 
do not know when the Lord will let me come your 
way, but shall be glad to come and see you. When you 
are in Cincinnati, do not forget the IVIount of Bless- 
ings, and that you will always find a hearty welcome. 
The Lord is wonderfully settling the students in Him- 
self, and constantly giving us souls saved and sancti- 
fied.' 

"Personally, I must say that I feel greatly bereaved 
in the death of Brother Knapp. For some time I had 
had an intense desire to meet him and enjoy the blessed 
fellowship that I felt for him in the noble work the Lord 
was accomplishing through him. To be denied all hope 
of this blessed privilege seems a sad affliction, indeed ; 
but I still have to praise God for the better hope of 
yet enjoying with him a more precious fellowship be- 
yond this vale of tears, where joy will be unending and 
friendships ne'er be severed. R." 

"The Revivalist, published by 'M. W. Knapp, of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, is one of the very best weekly holiness 
papers extant. It probably contains more solid spir- 
itual reading matter than any other holiness paper now 
in the field. We commend it to all readers of the Her- 
ald. We offer it with the Church Herald, both papers 
one year to all new subscribers, for only $1.25. With 
renewals to the Herald, $1.50. Both must be ordered 
at the same time. R." 

"Saratoga Springs, N. Y., December 13, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio: 

"Dear Sister in Christ, — Three years ago last Au- 
gust it was my privilege to meet your beloved husband 
at Tipton, Ind., where I labored with him in a blessed 



Ivii-K ot^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 257 

camp-meeting. I loved him before I met him, having 
learned to do so through his pungent writings, but have 
loved him more intensely since meeting him. By his 
death you have lost as noble a husband as woman ever 
had, and the Holiness Movement has lost a real knight, 
and heaven has received a prince. We shall all miss 
him, but no one will feel his loss so keenly as you. 
May the God of all grace comfort and sustain you in 
this your great bereavement ! is the prayer of 

"Your brother at the feet of Jesus sanctified wholly, 
- ' "U C. Pettit." 

"Saratoga Springs, N. Y., December lo, 1901. 

"My dear Mrs. Knapp, — We have just heard this 
morning the sorrowful news that Mr. Knapp has passed 
away. Beyond the bare fact we know nothing, but we 
hasten to send you a few lines of sympathy, to tell you 
we are praying for you, that Jesus may sustain and 
comfort you in this terrible bereavement. How sad 
to think a man just in his prime and so useful should 
be taken away ! But God knows best. His will be 
done. 

"Words express but poorly the tenderness of our 
hearts toward you at this time ; but please accept our 
sincere sympathy. 

"Your friends, 

"B. S. and Lillie E. Taylor." 

"Sioux City, Iowa, December 13, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio: 

"Dear Sister, — I have just read those lines at the 
top of the Revivalist, saying Brother Knapp has gone 
home. My heart is aching w^th a sense of loss. It 
seems to me that he belonged to us all. I ask myself 
why I feel this so personally, for I never saw him ; and 



2 eg A Hero of Faith and Praykr. 

then I know how great a place the RevivaUst has in 
my affections, and how his life has shone forth in his 
paper. We may well mourn for one who has held up 
so high a standard of religion, and caused so many 
to forsake sin and turn to Christ. It seems that he 
was called early in his career ; but if we measure men's 
lives by the good they have done, I believe he has lived 
out the full term of years. 

"While I know your will is in harmony with God's 
will, still I know, also, that your heart is full of sorrow, 
and I wish I could say one word that could cheer the 
grief ; but in his life's work he left the greatest consola- 
tion that could come to you, and you know that he 
will welcome you when you shall meet him in 'that day.' 
'With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought ; they 
shall enter into the King's palace.' 

"Your friend and sister, Ida W^etmore." 

"Wednesday, ii A. M. 

"My Precious Darling One, — I am struck dumb with 
grief on receiving the sad, awful news that my best- 
beloved brother stepped away to God so suddenly. 

"Darling, there is no vise in my trying to tell you 
how I feel ; it would be impossible any way. I 've been 
on the bed ever since the first mail that brought the 
sad news, and when I saw the envelope among others, 
I quickly tore it open, saying, 'What does this mean? 
Something is wrong ;' and was so overcome, as I saw 
the first few lines, I almost sank to the floor. Poor 
child ! how my heart just covered you all up with love 
and with burning tears, which I can not control. 'Poor 
Mrs. K., precious darling, how she must be suffer- 
ing, too, under the blow !' I kept on saying. 

"I feel helpless, darling sister, to tell you how my 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. t^cq 

very soul goes out to you. We all feel it ; but my 
heart feels it more keenly, you know ; for we know each 
other so well, so bound in the Spirit of Jesus. 

*'^Iy little darling, husband sees Jesus only, and re- 
joices. I rather grieve somehow, for you only know 
how precious Brother Knapp was to me, what a true 
friend and brother. I will miss him so ; but, then, I 
think how your dear heart will miss him. How happy 
I am that the Lord let him give me that little visit ! 
We both felt then he was a very much overworked 
little man ; but he has now entered into His rest, and 
the blessed fact is that his works will not stop or cease ; 
but his works will follow him, and go on throughout 
all ages, and a dear blessed record and work to fol- 
low him too. Let this comfort your dear heart, dar- 
ling, that his work will never cease. My heart is so 
full, words seem so meaningless, and I am just bowed 
with you. It seems just so much as if it were my 
own. I have prayed that the Lord will fill up the va- 
cant places and comfort you like a mother. My head 
has been splitting ever since the news this morning, but 
I felt I must just come to you any way. God fold you 
close in His arms. I know He is doing so, and praise 
Him for it. 

"Yours in much prayer." 

''Fitchburg, Mass., December 9, 1901. 
''Dear Sister Knapp, — My very heart w^eeps with 
you this morning. Can scarcely make it seem possible 
that the message announced at the Boston Convention 
yesterday is verily true. How far beyond our under- 
standing are His ways ! Yet this is one of the 'all 
things which work together for good to them that love 
God/ O may the loving Father, who has been your 



360 A Hero of Faith and Prayi:r. 

strength these years, prove abundantly sufficient for this 
most trying hour ! How beautiful to know that, though 
the strain and stress may, even in God's service, prove 
too much for the physical, yet the Spirit flies to Him 
v/here weariness is unknown, and all is one glad song 
of praise to Him who has redeemed us by His precious 
blood ! Such is, beyond a doubt, the blessed realization 
of him who has been so faithful over a few things ; 
hence he will be made ruler over many things. Have 
thought much of a son of whom he spoke when in 
our home last August, who was just stepping into 
young manhood. May the mantle of the father mani- 
fold rest upon that son ! God bless you, sister ! We 
are so glad that you can rest upon the bosom of Him 
who alone can give solace. May you realize each mo- 
ment that 'the eternal God is thy Refuge, and under- 
neath are the Everlasting Arms !' 

"Sincerely your sister for Him and the work, 

"Mrs. J. H. Sparling." 

"Vandalia, Mich., January 23, 1902. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — I have been thinking of your 
request about Brother Knapp's life. I can not recall 
anything striking in the way of incidents or special ex- 
periences. That which is of greater importance to me 
was the spirit of entire devotion to the Lord's will 
and work which he always manifested, just as though 
he were living a great sermon from the texts : 'This 
one thing I do ;' 'The zeal of the Lord hath eaten me 
up;' and these always from the theme, 'Holiness becom- 
eth Thine house, O Lord, forever.' I think my per- 
sonal acquaintance in close contact with him was in 
1885, at the Whitehall Grove meeting. It was soon 
after my experience of entire sanctification, and I appre- 



LiFr: OF Rt;v. M. W. Knapp. ^61 

ciated so much his teaching of hoHness. At that time 
he printed a pamphlet, 'Fire from Above,' containing 
incidents of that meeting, with experiences of some 
present, among them my own and that of my wife, Lucy 
Kellogg Beach. Then, while I was president of the 
Big Rapids District Camp-meeting, at Reed City, for 
three or four years, during Brother D. W. Parson's pre- 
siding elderate, Brother Knapp had the eight o'clock 
morning meeting. He was always like a live coal fresh 
from the altar near the throne. They were always sea- 
sons of marked power in the sanctification of believ- 
ers and conversion of sinners. Only eternity and God's 
records can reveal the results of those years of vic- 
tory on that camp-ground and their influence through- 
out that district. His work at that time, too, was, most 
of it, done when he was in great physical weakness. 
The altar scenes of these meetings came to me vividly, 
when scores, and sometimes hundreds, sought cleansing 
from all sin after his most searching presentation of 
the truth. As the years passed, the Lord widened the 
circle of his ministry, making him a flame of fire to 
burn up formality and worldliness in the Churches, and 
kindle in them the fire of full salvation. Now he is 
among those who go forth to the presence of the Lamb. 
"May the Lord guide you by His counsel, and sup- 
port you by His grace, even according to the abundance 
of His riches in Christ Jesus our Lord ! 
"Fraternally and very sincerely, 

"John C. Beach." 

"St. Catharines, December 14, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp: 

"Dear Sister in the Lord, — No doubt you will re- 
ceive many letters of sympathy from kind and loving 



^62 -^ Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

friends who are perhaps much better qualified to write a 
letter of condolence. But I feel I am one of the Re- 
vivaHst family, and, being led by the Holy Ghost, I will 
also write a few lines, praying that the Holy Ghost, the 
ever blessed Comforter, may make it a blessing to 
you. I never had the privilege of meeting dear Brother 
Knapp in the flesh ; but I know I shall meet him in the 
glory-land. When I received my paper, the Revivalist, 
I at once noticed extra printing on the top. I read 
it over and over, and thought I must have made a mis- 
take in the name. I asked myself, 'Can it be possible 
that God, in His great wisdom and understanding, 
should remove such a brother, that is so useful, and, 
as we would look at it, needed at this time so much, 
just as he had started such a grand work, and the 
Lord surely was pleased with it and so wonderfully 
prospered it?' These are mysteries we can not solve. 
But one thing we do know. Father never makes a 
mistake. We will leave it with Him. 

** ' Not now, but in the coming years, 
It may be in the better Land, 
We ' 11 read the meaning of our tears, 
And tliere some time we'll understand. 

We ' 11 catch the broken threads again. 

And finish what we here began ; 
Heaven will the mysteries explain, 

And then, O then, we'll understand ! 
We ' 11 know why clouds instead of sun 

Were over many a cherished plan, 
Why song had ceased when once begun, — 

T' is there some time we'll understand. 
God knows the way, He holds the key. 

He guides us with unerring hand ; 
Sometimes with tearless eyes, we '11 see — 

Yes, there, up there, we '11 understand.' 

''Your sister in the Lord, S. Medden." 



LiFt: oi^ Rkv. j\1. W. IvNAi'i'. ^63 

"Battle Creek, Mich., December 12, 1901. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — How shocked we were when 
we read Brother Wood's letter, telling us the sad news ! 
It was so unexpected, and, to human vision, it looks so 
dark ; but when we look to God, how it brightens ! God 
never makes any mistakes ; and while our hearts ache 
and our tears flow, yet we can say, 'Thy will be done.' 
Dear Sister, I need not tell you where to look for help 
and consolation ; you know the way perfectly ; but let 
me add my testimony to all the rest. God never fails 
us in our time of greatest need. He will be a hus- 
band unto you. O praise His dear name ! We have 
great cause to remember Brother Knapp. When friends 
were few and brother ministers turned their backs upon 
us. Brother Knapp was Christ-like, and had a word of 
encouragement, and extended the helping hand. O you 
do n't know how much it meant to us ! Eternity alone 
can reveal it. His work is done; the battle has been 
fought ; the prize has been gained, and to-day he is 
among the bloodwashed throng who came up through 
much tribulation. We are still on the battlefield among 
the foes of Christ. May we all be faithful to the end 
as he has been ! I almost envy him. I get so tired, 
not of the way ; but strength almost fails ; and O, dear 
sister, we have had a face-to-face fight with the devil 
this past year ! But God has kept us. I '11 not weary 
you with our burdens. Did not mean to mention them. 
You have many friends near and dear to write to you. 
I am almost a stranger to you ; but my heart so went 
out towards you in your sorrow that I wanted to speak 
a word to you. I am so glad I had the privilege of 
meeting you both at Chicago. God bless and comfort 
you as only He can comfort, and make you a wonder- 
ful blessing to others ! 

"Your sister in Christ, Anna R. Kolp." 



264 ^ Hi:Ru OF Faith and Prayj^r. 

''Tobasco, Ohio, December 10, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp and Family, Cincinnati, Ohio : 

"My dear Sister, — Our hearts were made to mourn 
yesterday, when we learned of our dear Brother Knapp's 
leaving us to join the ransomed in our Father's home, 
and especially so for you, whom he has left. But how 
glorious comes the thought to your sad, lonesome 
hearts, that he was only waiting, and had only to close 
his tired eyes in this world, and open them in the ever- 
joyful land! Our Minnie praises his life for leading her 
into the fullness of joy of our Savior's love. My dear 
friend, words fail to express what I feel in my heart 
this morning. While there is sadness, there is joy ; and 
I know that you, deeper in God's love, have the sam.e 
experience, and can wholly look to Him for relief and 
protection. 

"We extend our sympathy in this hour of affliction, 
and pray God's richest blessings upon you and the 
work. Elma Upperman." 

"Oakland, Cal., December 16, 1901. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — W^e have seldom received such 
a shock as your letter gave us. I can scarcely make it 
seem real yet. When we lived in Albion, and Brother 
Knapp was so poorly, his death would not have sur- 
prised me at any time. After he got stronger, and 
we were gone, he wrote me that he expected to live 
fifty years to fight sin and Satan. Somehow I had set- 
tled down to the thought that he would live to a good 
old age, and that the grass would be green over my 
grave before he would lay down his sword. So it all 
came over me with a strangeness and a startling sud- 
denness. The feeling of loneliness increases, and I 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



365 



think of little else but him. Away back yonder we first 
met in Albion. A friendship sprang up. We studied 
one day in his room, the next in mine. Out in the 
activities of life, I went to his home to live while teach- 
ing. In the pastorate we labored together, first on his 
charge, then on mine, in revival work. 'David and 
Jonathan' they called us at Conference. Later in evan- 
gelistic work we were associated. Our paths there di- 
verged geographically ; he went south, I west. While 
we were far apart, measured by miles, I knew he was 
there, though our messages to each other were few. 
But now he is gone, and yet heaven is not far away; 
the end of the journey is not far ahead of any of us. 
We pray for you all. We can enter into full sympathy. 
It is all right. He doeth all things well. His love is 
unfailing? The backward look will reveal it all, and 
make it all right. 

"Your brother. Rev. B. E. Paddock." 

"Salem, Oregon, December 17, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp: 

"Beloved Sister, — We noticed the announcement of 
dear Brother Knapp's translation, and we all who are at 
Pentecostal Training-school send Christian love and 
condolence. It was a great shock, but at the same time 
the Father witnessed with us that all was well, and you 
were receiving strength and help from Jesus. 

"We are more zealous than ever to stand for the 
truth and push 'holiness unto the Lord.' We know God 
will raise up some one to continue Brother Knapp's 
work, and we pray that He will preserve it blameless 
unto His coming. 

"Yours in holy war, M. L. Ryan." 



^66 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

"Fruitland Park, Fla., December 17, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio : 

"My dear Sister in Christ, — You certainly have my 
heartfelt sympathy in your sad bereavement. O there 
is deep sorrow in your home among all the dear ones ; 
but deeper is the sorrow in your own heart, for I know 
your heart is almost crushed. O dear one, cling to 
the cross of Jesus for help and strength. I have been 
praying for you that your strength fail not ; but O, that 
vacant chair will no more be filled by our beloved 
brother ! He has gone home to live with Jesus ; but 
we had learned to love him so well for the good spir- 
itual food we gathered each week from the Revivalist. 
God may may raise up another in his place ; but his 
place can not be filled by another. We shall miss him ; 
there will be one vacant chair. O I know the great 
burden he had to bear was too heavy for him — indebt- 
edness of Mount of Blessings and Tabernacle ; then 
planning for the Rescue Home, besides so many other 
burdens. They certainly must have been a very great 
strain upon him. 

"O let me live the life of the righteous, that my last 
end may be Hke his, glorious ! Precious in the sight 
of the Lord is the death of His saints. Glory be to 
His name who died to redeem us all ! Not one need be 
left out ; for God has hidden all mankind to come and 
partake of the water of life freely. I came to that 
fountain, and was cleansed from all sin. To-day I can 
look up and rejoice. Why? Because His blood 
cleansed me from all sin. How good that we can know 
this for ourselves, and not another ! Jesus shows His 
smiling face in so many ways, so we may know. Is He 
not precious to us all, especially in sickness? He seems 
nearer to us then because we trust Him more fully. 
"Yours lovingly, Mrs. E. C. Harner." 



Lii^e: of Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^i'^^ 

"Washington, D. G., December i6, 1901. 

''Our Dear Sister Knapp and Family, — God bless 
you ! Words would fail to express the deep love and 
sympathy we feel for you in the great sorrow that has 
come to you through the sudden translation of your 
dear husband, son, and father, our beloved brother. 

''When the news came to us from my father in Ohio, 
our hearts were possessed of grief mingled with joy; 
grief, through the very great loss which so many, 
many will feel, and the joy of his and Heaven's 
gain, the thought of him really being with Jesus, 
whom he has so long loved and served so faith- 
fully. What a blessing he has been to so many 
souls ! How we individually praise God for him, 
and that we had the privilege of being in such 
close touch with his blessed life ! Truly his death 
makes heaven more real to us than ever before ; 
and now we do feel that our Jesus is surely coming 
back soon with him and the great company, to gather 
us up to meet with them in the air. O, he has just 
stepped into the chariot a little ahead of us, and will be 
permitted to come back with Jesus. He has been so 
faithful and self-denying, he was worthy to get to see 
Jesus ahead of us. 'Precious in the sight of the Lord 
is the death of His saints.' We pray God tnar a double 
portion of his spirit rest upon the Revivalist family. 
May dear Brother Knapp's mantle fall upon the right 
one to lead the Lord's hosts on to eternal victory ! 

"There was only one dear Brother Knapp. His 
place can not be filled ; but God will see that his nobly- 
begun work will move on till Jesus comes. 

"We imagine the solemnity that pervades the Mount 
of Blessings. Our hearts are bowed with grief when 
we think of the lonely hearts, especially of the dear 
companion ; but how glad we are, as the sympathizing 



368 A Hkro 01^ Faith axd Prayer. 

Jesus, who wept with ]\Iartha and ]\lary, Hves there in 
the person of the blessed 'Holy Comforter!' What an 
appropriate name ! — for truly He is a Comforter. 

' There ' s not an hour that He is not near us ; 
No, not one ; no, not one ; 
No night so dark but His love can cheer us ; 
No, not one ; no, not one.' 

"How glad we are for the experiences we had in 
the dear Bible-school. Long may it live to be a bless- 
ing to those on whom the Lord has His hand. With 
much love and sympathy, we are yours in Jesus. 
''Your sister and brother, 

"Jessie and James Hundley." 
" 'Look up, your redemption draweth nigh.' " 



CHAPTER XXI. 
A STREAM OF HOPEFUL SORROW. 

^*I watch thee from the quiet shore; 
Thy spirit up to mine can reach ; 
But in dear words of human speech 
We two communicate no more. 

O days and hours, your work is this : 

To hold me from my proper place, 

A little while from his embrace, 
For fuller gain and after bliss ; 

That out of distance might ensue 

Desire of nearness doubly sweet ; 

And unto meeting when we meet. 
Delight a hundred-fold accrue." — Tennyson. 

It will be remembered that Knapp was told, when 
an insignificant-looking young man, that if he were 
buried in the straw-stack he would not be missed. If 
that speaker is living now, and is intelligent enough to 
know what is going on, what does he think of this 
stream of grief that poured over the land and world 
when our ''Hero of Faith and Prayer" went to the 
skies? It reveals how he had touched with benedic- 
tions a multitude of hearts. 

''Dallas, Texas, December 12, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio: 

"Dear Sister, — I learned the sad news yesterday 
through friends, and read in God's Revivalist to-day, 
that Brother Knapp, my friend and dearly-beloved 
24 369 



270 A Hero oe Faith and Prayer. 

brother in Christ, was taken from his earthly friends 
and relatives, where we can no longer hear his voice 
nor receive his weekly messages here on earth through 
God's Revivalist. O how sad my heart is this day to 
know that his voice and pen is stilled, and how much 
we shall miss him ! I have been a wrecked and ruined 
man, and it is largely due to Brother Knapp's influence 
that my soul is saved now. It has been his boldness to 
strike down the powers of darkness and label the imps 
of hell as such, and to fearlessly hold up Christ, the 
Prince of peace, as being able to save to the uttermost 
all that come unto God by Him. Four years of infi- 
delity destroyed my faith in God and all mankind; but 
seeing the boldness and assurance with which he ap- 
proached the throne of Grace Divine for spiritual as 
w^ell as temporal needs, inspired my drooping faith and 
spirits heavenward, until now, glory to Jesus, my mind is 
staid on God, and I have the peace of God that 
passeth knowledge. 

"Sister Knapp, God bless you and your dear chil- 
dren ! The same God whom Brother Knapp served and 
trusted these many years is your God. I know that you 
will find in Him the warmest, dearest, sweetest Friend 
you have ever known, and in this, the dark hour of 
death in your home, thank God, the stormclouds can't 
hide Jesus' smiling face. Bless His dear name ! I have 
suffered so mtich heartache and found such coldness in 
the bosom of earthly friends, until — bless His dear 
name — I fly to Jesus, the great Burden-bearer, and cast 
my cares upon Him, remembering that He is the great 
Sympathizer and Comforter of hearts in the Holy Ghost. 
My dear mother left this world two years ago, with 
seemingly mighty little prospects of heaven, if we judge 



Lii^e: of^ Rrv. M. W. Knapp. 371 

the life ; and O, I never heard such sighs and saw such 
a discouraged and hopeless look on a human face as 
was her condition for three or four days before her 
death ; but, Sister Knapp, God gave me grace to sing 
over her poor, lifeless corpse at the grave. (I led the 
song service ; no others could do it.) I am glad that 
Brother Knapp lived in my day. I feel Hke doing more 
now than ever since we have met with such a loss. I 
wanted to let you know that a friend in Texas weeps 
with you in your great trial. Hurry and give us the 
details of his demise. Many anxious hearts are waiting 
in hopes of hearing of a triumphant translation. 

"Your brother in Christ, H. E. Malone." 

"Adair, Ind. Ter., December 15, 1901. 

"My dear Sister Knapp, — The Lord bless thee and 
keep thee ; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and 
be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up His countenance 
upon thee, and give thee grace.' 

"Words can not express the sorrow I felt when I 
opened my Revivalist and saw the note to 'the Reviv- 
alist family.' May God comfort and bless you in this 
your deep sorrow ! We know 'that all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God,' and may He 
help you to look up and say, 'Thy will be done.' 

"I can not see who can fill Brother Knapp's place ; 
but praise the Lord for such a blessed man as Brother 
Knapp ! Have remembered you often in prayer, and 
will continue to hold you up at the throne of grace. 

"May God bless and comfort you and keep you by 
His power ! With much love from 
"Your sister in Christ, 

"Mrs. R. Vandiwort." 



272 A Hi:ro oi^ Faith and Praye:r. 

"523 Lord Street, Indianapolis, Ind., December 9, 1902. 

"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio : 

''My dear Mrs. Knapp, — My heart goes out to you 
in this most trying hour. May the very God of peace 
comfort your heart and sustain you ! is my prayer. 

"When Brother Bacon told me yesterday of the sud- 
den call, I thought immediately of God's work, begun 
there by Brother Knapp, of how he had been about his 
'Father's business,' and had certainly proven himself 
worthy, and God had promoted him to a more exalted 
position. It makes me have a deeper longing to be 
true in every sense, and to make use of every oppor- 
tunity for good. May God bless, comfort, and keep 
you ! "Yours in Christ, Delia Brown." 

"Cleveland, Ohio, December 13, 1901. 
"Sister Knapp, — Just received the very sad news of 
the departure of your devoted husband and my devoted 
friend, which made me feel exceedingly sad. I do not 
know of the departure of any religious worker which 
was as hard for me to give up as he. It was under 
his preaching that God awakened me for the blessing 
of holiness, and I know that there are many who have 
the same testimony. He is truly numbered among those 
that are shining forth as the stars in the firmament; for 
God has certainly used him in turning many to right- 
eousness. Remember that God doeth all things well. 
Since He has promoted, or, rather, translated him, our 
loss is Heaven's gain ; though our tears fall thick and 
fast, we will remember our Burden-bearer. I trust that 
your burden may not be so heavy, since there are so 
many who are sharing it with you. When I was in sor- 
row some years ago. Brother Knapp comforted me with 
these words that 'God and time' only was the cure. Now 



Life: o^ Rev. M. W. Knapp. 273 

may his precious words comfort his wife, mother, and 
children, also all of us who feel the loss. 

"For you my prayers ascend, and may He use you 
in carryino- on this great work ! 

"Yours in His fullness, J. C. Turner." 

"Greensboro, N. C, December 18, 1901. 

"My dear Sister in Jesus, — Your letter at hand, and 
glad to hear from you. Sad to hear Brother Knapp 
had left us ; was a shock to us all. We loved him as a 
father, and' I shall miss his words of counsel. In the 
great battle of life, and oft-times when the enemy was 
after me, and no one near who could give me a word 
of comfort, how I would appreciate his letters with a 
'God bless you. Brother Hodgin.' The three days he 
was with us, two years ago, was such a benediction to 
our home. How we shall miss him ! But we were able 
to say, 'Glory to God! the Lord's will be done.' He is 
safe now, and, by the grace of God, we shall meet him. 

"I know you miss him more than any one else. Re- 
member, you have our love and sympathy ; also re- 
member that hundreds of prayers are going up to God 
in the South for you and the work there. Keep the 
Revivalist hotter than ever, and we covenant ourselves 
anew to do our best to make it so. 

"The Lord comfort and keep you forever ! Amen ! 

"L. C. Hodgin." 

"New Burlington, Ohio, December 12, 1901. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — We are just in receipt of the 
news of yovir husband's death, our brother, beloved 
Brother Knapp. How we loved him, though apart, yet 
so blessedly near, as the work of his hands united our 
spirits in a Holy work for the Master, co-workers with 



374 ^ Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

him. We extend to you, dear sister, our Christian love 
and sympathy. Earth can not hold heaven's treasures. 
"Your brother and sister in Jesus love, 

"Rachel K. Jones and E. Townsend Jones." 

''Methuen, Mass., December 17, 1901. 
'^To Mrs. M. W. Knapp : 

"Dear Sister in Christ, — Please accept many thanks 
for your kindness, also my sincere sympathy in your 
bereavement and sorrow. God alone knows what the 
heart can bear, and 'His will, not ours, be done.' 

"It was a great shock, and seemed to me as though 
one of my own family had gone ; and indeed was it 
not, for are we not all of one great family ? 
"Your sister in Christ, 

"Mrs. Myra Richardson." 

"Providence, R. I., Decem.ber 10, 1901. 

"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, — It is with a sad heart I am 
looking for the next paper. It seems as if I had lost 
a father for a second time. It may be too much to 
write to you this way ; but I feel I want you to know 
how the Providence people at the Church of Emmanuel 
felt when they heard the sad news. I think there were 
not many dry eyes in the house. 

"Mr. George S. McKay (a subscriber to God's Re- 
vivalist) said, as he spoke of Mr. Knapp's illness (Mr. 
Pennington being at Boston), that he thanked God for 
having seen and heard him, and the help he had been 
to him in the paper. 

"Blessings have come to my own soul as I have re- 
ceived letters from him, and I shall never forget his 
pleasant little talk with me at Portsmouth last summer, 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. ^75 

when he advised me not to stay with anything like a 
dead Church. And I can truthfully say that hardly a day 
has passed for the last two years that he has not come 
into my mind. 

"The Lord bless you and John ! It must be hard 
for him ; but I feel sure the presence of the Holy Com- 
forter is with you all there, and Grandmother Knapp, 
whose testimony I always like to read. 

''Please excuse me for taking up your time to read 
this. 

"1 know such men as Revs. Rees and Fergerson 
must feel the loss greater than I, and, of course, the stu- 
dents ; but, as I said before, it is a personal loss to 
me, the least. 

"Pray for me, that, as one of the Revivalist family 
and one of the soldiers of the Holiness Army, I may 
keep the fire burning in my soul. Heaven seems nearer 
this week, and more real as the days go by. 

"Again, the Lord bless thee. As you are so busy 
and will have to write to so many others, I will not 
expect a reply. 

"Respectfully yours, Herbert L. Henry." 

"Mt. Vernon, 111., December 14, 1901. 

"My dear Sister Knapp, — God bless you in this try- 
ing hour ! I do sympathize with and pray for you 
that God will give grace in this time of need. 

"I was so shocked and surprised to hear of Brother 
Knapp's death. God knows best, and, no doubt, his 
work was done, though, indeed, it looked so different 
from our point of view. His ways are not our ways. 

"I know that, while you are given up to God's will, 
and bow in submission to Him, yet, after all, there is 



376 A He:ro of P'aith and Praye:r. 

a bleeding heart that no one can comfort but Jesus. 
We are not machines; we are human. Some seem to 
think, because we are sanctified and given up to God, 
that we need no sympathy, and that we are unhke 
others. Well, indeed, in one respect we are unlike other 
people ; and in another sense we are a good deal alike. 

"May God bless and strengthen you for the work, 
and give you grace and victory, and lead you in the way 
of life everlasting! 

"Would like to be at the memorial services. Do n't 
know yet whether I can be, or not, afraid not. 

"I will do all in my power to help you in the work. 

"Love to dear John and the little darlings ; love to 
the school. 

"As ever, }ours in holy love, 

"E. A. Fergerson." 

"Texas, N. Y., December 12, 1901. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — This noon I mailed a business 
letter directed to Brother Knapp, not dreaming that it 
was the last one I would send so directed ; but the re- 
turning mail brought me the Revivalist with the news, 
both sad and glad, that Brother Knapp had gone home 
to be forever with the Lord. 

"While we have never met in the flesh ; yet, for about 
twelve years, I have been more or less in touch with 
Brother Knapp, through books, papers, and correspond- 
ence ; and, some way, there has been such a union in 
spirit that / had become attached to him as to no other man 
on earth zvhom I have not personally met; and I think I 
can truthfully add, equal to almost any one I have ever met. 
I did not know I loved him so much. How dear and 
how precious are those who are kindred in spirit, al- 



Life of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 



377 



though not related by blood ties, and, sometimes, not 
even personally acquainted! 

''Since receiving the Revivalist to-night I have wept 
and WQpt again, as I rarely weep at the death of any 
one ; yet, withal, comes over me such waves of blessing 
and assurance that I feel I would not desire it to be 
different. It must be God's way, or it would not be 
so. I know God will comfort you and all the dear ones 
at Mount of Blessings, while your grief will be shared 
by the whole Revivalist family. 

"I have had such an intense desire to meet Brother 
Knapp and the rest of the saints at Mount of Bless- 
ings ; but it is not to be, not just yet, any way. It may 
not be long, however, until Jesus will come, or until 
some of us shall meet him in glory. 

"No other editor, no other evangelist, no other pas- 
tor would I miss more than I shall Brother Knapp ; 
unless it be the one who is my own brother in the flesh, 
as well as in the gospel. It would seem to us he could 
not be spared ; but God has His eye on the one or ones 
upon whom his mantle is to fall, and will carry His 
work while He promotes the worker. 

"Brother Knapp once wrote me expressing the hope 
that I was still pressing the battle, unless God had some- 
thing better for me. I think of it so much. Now God 
has something better for him, and I am still left to 
work for Jesus a little longer. 

Please pardon this long letter, but my heart is full. 
I feel I owe so much, under God, to Brother Knapp ; 
God has used him so much to help me, and also I have 
watched with rejoicing, as God led him to make the 
Revivalist more and more radical and clean-cut, and 
saw the light shining clearer and clearer in its glowing 



^tS a Hero of Faith axd Prayer. 

pages. God richly bless and comfort you and the chil- 
dren, and make this trial a means of added blessing ! 
You have our prayers. 

"One of the Revivalist family. 

"^l. D. Warburton, 
"Pastor Wesleyan ^lethodist Church." 

''A'andalia, ]\Iich., December 12, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio : 

"My dear Sister. — Brother AA'ood's letters both re- 
ceived to-night, forwarded from Lake City. 

''How our hearts go out to you in this great sor- 
row ! 'J^sus wept.' Yes, His was real sorrow ; His 
was a real life. \\'hy should not we weep also? It is 
God's way for us. You loved him, and the measure of 
that affection is the immeasurable chasm made by his 
departure. I loved him well ; there has been a great 
vacancy in my Conference life since he did not meet 
with us ; but I have thought of him as about the blas- 
ter's business elsewhere. Is he not still about the Mas- 
ter's business ? Certainly ; he in the upper courts, as 
we below. I am sure the God of all comfort is com- 
forting your heart with the same comfort wherewith 
we also in like manner have been comforted. We are 
bearing you to the Throne of infinite grace. Of Brother 
]\[artin Wells Knapp it can be said as of but few. 'The 
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.' He held noth- 
ing back from God. He constantly, instantly, joyously, 
wholly served his Savior. 

"Truly may we say with Charles Wesley: 

** 'Servant of God, well done ! 

Thy glorious warfare ' s past ; 
The battle ' s fought, the race is won, 
And thou art crowned at last ; 



Life; of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. n'JQ 

Of all thy heart's desire 

Triumphantly possessed ; 
Lodged by the ministerial choir 

In thy Redeemer' s breast. 

In condescending love, 

Thy ceaseless prayer He heard ; 
And bade thee suddenly remove 

To thy complete reward 

With saints enthroned on high, 

Thou dost thy Lord proclaim, 
And still to God salvation cry, 

Salvation to the Lamb ! 

O, happy, happy soul ! 

In ecstasies of praise, 
Long as eternal ages roll, 

Thou seest thy Savior's face. 

Redeemed from earth and pain, 

Ah ! when shall we ascend. 
And all in Jesus' presence reign 

With our translated friend?' 

"There! it needed it all to voice my heart to you. 
It would be a great satisfaction to be at the Memorial 
the 19th; but that is not within our ability. We have 
one common mercy-seat, and there will we meet, and 
let our faith unite with yours. There comes to me so 
vividly that gathering at your mother's home when Con- 
ference met at Lansing. What a gathering in the home 
above ! May we all safely enter ! Your brother, 

"John C. Beach." 

" 'I, e:vFN I, AM He THAT CoMFORT^TH YoU.' 

"New York, 490 Broadway, December 26, 1901. 
"My Precious Sister, — Your kind note reached me 
while I was spending a few days in Springfield, Mass. 
"So your beloved has pushed aside the curtain and 



380 A Hero 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

slipped out of your sight for a little while ; but not out 
of your presence. You won't look ahead, and you will 
not grieve, I know, but just enter into the heavenlies 
with him. 

' ' * Bright smiles, not tears, to welcome 
This glad triumphant morn ! 
For every foe is vanquished, 
And death of terrors shorn. 

O, shining is their pathway 

Who that dear country win ! 
Fullness of joy their portion, 

And he hath entered in.' 

"O, I know how you have felt the new touch of His 
love, and how He has been with you : 

* When thou passest through the waters, 
I will be with thee ! 
Sure and sweet and all sufficient 
Shall His presence be.' 

"Have you written to Mother Mossman, and did 
you send her the same paper you so kindly sent me? 
I thank you so much for it, and for your sweet note. 
How good you are to me ! If it is in His plan, I shall 
indeed consider it a privilege and a joy to meet you 
at the place you speak of, and shall be much pleased 
to see you if you can call upon me at 221 West 44th; 
only you know I might possibly not be able to stop 
only a few minutes here, but I might be free to visit 
half an hour or so. He will lead you just right. To 
think I shall not see your beloved now until we meet 
over there where Jesus will be seen face to face. You 
will not feel any separation. You can not ; for you both 
are so close to Jesus it keeps you close to each other. 

"If we could only know, somewhat as John must 



Life: of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 381 

have known after his vision, the presence of God into 
which our friend enters on the other side, the higher 
standards, the larger fellowship with all his race, and 
the new assurance of personal immortality in God, — 
if we could know all this, how all else would give way 
to something almost like a burst of triumph as the soul 
which we loved went forth to such vast enlargements, 
to such glorious consummation of its life ! 

"God bless you more and more, and yet more! 

"How about your physical testings? Are they all 
gone, and are you strong and well? I hope so. If 
anything should cause you not to come to New York, 
can you let me know when you know? 

"Yours lovingly in Him forever, Hope Alvord." 

"Merrill, Mich., December 20, 1901. 

"My Dear Minnie, — On the human side, we offer 
sincerest sympathy and sorrow in and for your great 
grief and bereavement. It is not only your and our 
loss in Brother Martin's death, but to us it seems the 
great work he was doing must suffer as the mighty 
energy of his little body is forever still. He has done 
the work of a Hfetime in the years he has been spared 
to us and the world. 

"How we love the truth, purity, and unswerving 
loyalty to God of our brother ! We took sweet coun- 
sel together. Brother beloved, farewell ! We shall 
meet again, blessed be the Lord ! There is a brighter 
and diviner side. We congratulate you in the midst 
of our tears that, for our brother, the battle is glo- 
riously ended, and for him work is done. He has heard 
the 'Well done' of Jesus, and entered into rest. 

"May his life and death be to us who knew and 
loved him an inspiration to be more like our blessed 



382 A He:ro 01^ Faith and Prayer. 

Master our remaining days, until we, too, join the blood- 
washed company of those who have gone before ! May 
the Lord comfort and strengthen you, our dear bereft 
one, as far as may please Him, to carry on the work 
dear Martin has laid down ! 

"Your loving brother and sister, 

"William and H. E. Taylor." 

"Greenville, Texas, December 16, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio : 

"My dear Sister in Christ, — Your very kind letters 
are at hand, and contents noted. 

"The news of dear Brother Knapp's 'slipping off to 
heaven' smote our hearts with sadness that he should 
be no more among us in the flesh, but rejoicing to know 
life's work and weariness is over with him, and he has 
gone to be with Jesus, whom he loved so much, and 
for whom he lived, and labored, and died. 

"I am sorry I never knew him in the flesh. I feel 
almost as if I did, and feel personally bereaved. I re- 
joice to know I could be of some help, comfort, and 
encouragement to him in his trials in Hfe's rugged way. 
It was so unfortunate, and to me seemingly very un- 
kind and unbrotherly in to prod him so amid all 

his toils and cares, when he had all and more than 
flesh could bear up under any way. I was so pleased 
with the meek, Christly spirit with which he received 
and bore it all. It drew me nearer to him, and has 
been an inspiration to me. It is possible for one to 
live like Jesus in this world. Praise God for it ! I 
shall always praise God for dear Brother Knapp and his 
life and work in this world. 'And he being dead yet 
speaketh.' I am so glad that you know so well the 
source of comfort, strength, and wisdom. I rejoice to 



LirE OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 383 

know that God led him to arrange everything, and that 
his heaven-appointed work is to continue. 'God buries 
His workman, but carries on the work.' May He give 
you and your helpers a double portion of His Spirit 
and wisdom, and make the latter building more glorious 
than the former. 

''God bless, sustain, keep, and greatly use you for 
His glory ! 

"Your brother in Him, C. M. Keith." 

, "Boston, Mass., December 9, 1901. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — I know words seem empty 
just now, but please permit me to express my pro- 
foundest sympathy with you and yours in this trying 
hour. My own heart is stricken beyond expression, 
and it would just fly to Cincinnati if it were not for 
the brethren who say I must not leave my command. 
We are in one of the greatest fights of my life; but O, 
how it adds to my awful sorrow not to be at his funeral ! 
I long to look upon his silent face. I did not know that 
I did love him so much. God bless you forever, and 
comfort you now. 

"Mrs. Rees feels this to be an awful blow. She will 
write you. 

"Tenderly, your unworthy brother, 

"Seth C. Rees." 

"Chicago, 111., December 9, 1901. 
"Our dear Sister Knapp, — 'Grace be unto you and 
peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all 
comfort [bless His name!]. Who comforteth us in all 
our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them 



384 -'^ Hkro of* Faith and Praykr. 

who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we 
ourselves are comforted of God.' (2 Cor. ii, 2-4.) These 
words are more precious than ever during the past few 
hours. While we w^ere at the Metropolitan Church yes- 
terday morning, enjoying the blessed testimonies, songs, 
etc., in the class-meeting. Sister Harvey whispered the 
news of our dear brother's departure. At first a holy 
calm settled down over buoyant spirit, and we felt sad, 
and then glad. We thought of you in your sorrow, 
and of Brother John and dear little Lucy, and we felt 
that you were 'leaning on the Everlasting Arms,' and 
nestlings close to the great, sympathizing heart of Jesus. 
How precious these words will be to you : 'I will not 
leave you comfortless : I will come to you !' (John xiv, 
18.) You have lost a loving, thoughtful husband, and 
a kind, tender father. The school has lost a wise and 
faithful instructor. The Revivalist will mourn the loss 
of a fearless and uncompromising editor, and you will 
have the sympathy of twenty thousand of its readers. 
Brother Knapp has gone, but his works do follow him. 
He has fought his last battle, shed his last tear. No 
more weary nights ; no more heartaches and weepings 
over sinners ; no more fastings. He has laid aside the 
armor, and put on the w^hite robes. The last feeble 
step has been taken, the last hill climbed, and his trials 
all ended. Glory to God forever ! 'Gone where the 
wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.' 
He has passed through the gate, and has seen his Lord 
face to face. The Master has welcomed him to His 
palace, and given him his harp and crown, and said, 
'Well done.' He has fed the hungry and ministered to 
the sick and needy, comforted the sad and heartbroken, 
and encourag^ed the disheartened; and now he sits at 



Lii?E OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 385 

the table of the King, feasting on the deUcacies of the 
Celestial City. Nevermore will men hale him to the 
judge and accuse him of disturbing the peace. Never 
again will the court pronounce him guilty. 

"The toils of the road are all ended, and he is bask- 
ing in the glory of heaven. No doubt he has found the 
dear ones gone before — the saints he knew so well while 
here. And O, it is so sweet to think that we, too, shall 
soon be there, where sorrows are unknown and part- 
ings never come ! We are so glad that the dear Lord 
privileged us both to be at the camp-meeting last sum- 
mer and meet him. Little did we think that, ere an- 
other year passed, he would have left us and gone to 
be with Jesus. When he was here a month ago at the 
Convention, he looked worn and tired. The dear Lord 
saw that he needed a rest, and granted it to him. How 
happy he must be to-night in his heavenly mansion ! 
The Church here prayed much for you and the dear 
workers there during the services yesterday. Our 
hearts were all strangely warmed and melted, and the 
tears would come at times. We have all faith in God 
for the work there, and believe that it will prosper and 
grow with amazing power, silencing for a time the 
enemies' guns. God is at the helm, and doeth all things 
well. He knows where the deep waters lie, and will 
guide the old ship safely. Hallelujah ! Our hearts 
go out to you and yours in sympathy and love in these 
trying hours. 

" 'The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : the Lord 
make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
thee : the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and 
give thee peace.' (Num. vi, 24-26.) 

" 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
25 



386 A fi^RO 01^ Faith and Praykr. 

and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the 
former things are passed away. . . . For the Lamb 
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and 
shall lead them unto living fountains of water ; and God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.' (Rev. vii, 
17; xxi, 4.) 

* Pray on, sad hearts, and some sweet day 

Our God shall wipe all tears away ; 

You ' 11 meet the loved one gone before. 

And dwell with Christ for evermore.' 

"Lovingly and tenderly yours, 

''Arthur F. Ingler, 
"James H. Howell. 

''Care D. M. Farson, 115 Dearborn Street, Chicago, 
Illinois." 

"Chicago, III, December 9, 1901. 

"Mrs. M. W. Knapp : Dearly Beloved of God,— You 
have our prayers and Christian sympathy in the loss 
of our precious brother, your beloved husband. 'Truly 
he walked with God, and was not, for God took him.' 
He had finished the work, kept the faith, and has simply 
gone on to the crown. We feel ourselves bereft of a real 
companion. His voice, by pen, spoke to us each week 
in God's Revivahst by the Holy Ghost. The message 
will come now, and out of all will glow the purpose of 
God. He has promised, 'Surely I will go with thee.' 
This is yours in a deeper, truer sense than ever before. 
May the God of all comfort comfort you ! 

"We have just wired, and, if seems good and ap- 
proved of God, hope to come down for a day of feast- 
ing in the house of mourning. 

"Yours in the Holy Ghost, S. H. Bolton." 



IviFE OF Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 387 

''Baltimore, Md., December 12, 1901. 

''Dear Sister Knapp, — Greetings, in the name of 
Jesus. Never before in my life did I receive such a 
shock as when I received God's Revivalist a few minutes 
ago, and read of Brother Knapp's translation. 

"How cruel death is ! In an hour we least expect, 
and just when we feel we need them most. He comes 
and takes from us our loved ones. The flesh suffers, 
feeling the stroke very keenly ; but the spirit is triumph- 
ant and victorious, and rejoices over the grand victory 
won by our husband, brother, friend, in his last conflict 
with the last enemy to be conquered. 

"To say I sympathize with you in this last hour 
does not tell all. You have my prayers. May the God 
of all peace and comfort be with you, and take the place 
of him who has outstripped us in the race ! God bless 
you, my sister, and give complete victory ! 

"Yours in Titus ii, 13-14, and on John x, 35. 

"A. Lee Gray." 

"Indianapolis, Ind., 404 N. Illinois Street, 
December 14, 1901. 
"My Precious Sister Knapp, — How my heart aches 
at the thought of Brother Knapp's having gone home ! 
I loved him as a brother because he was a man after 
God's own heart. I love those who stand firm and 
strong when the very hosts of hell are arrayed against 
them. I always loved to think of him in the work, and 
I always prayed ior him daily. He has gone to live with 
our Father. How blessed ! What a precious thought ! 
I felt at first we could not spare him ; but, as I wrote 
Sister S. A. Keen, I really believe God needed him as a 
general in heaven perhaps to get things ready for us. 
He was more than a Christian ; he was a man of valor 



^88 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

and superior strength. How wise he was in his se- 
lection of trustees ! 

"I do wish I could be there the 19th. If it had been 
during the holidays I should have been with you. If 
we could see him as he is now, how our hearts would 
leap within us ! You blessed woman, go on with the 
work. God will raise up friends and helpers. I never 
felt so near you nor loved you so much. I want you 
to pray for me at the Bible-school. I had an awful 
fall in September. Perhaps Charlie Weigele told you. 
My nerves are completely unstrung. I have taken the 
Lord for my Healer ; but, somehow, I have n't entered 
in. I do not believe the Lord wants me to break down. 
"Very lovingly yours, Kate Applegate." 

[Telegram.] 

''Boston, Mass., 12/8, '01. 

"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Young and Ringgold, — God 
has called His own. Sincerest love, sympathy, and 
prayers extended. F. M. Messenger." 

"Chicago, December 11, 1901. 
"Dear Sister Knapp, — May the God of all comforts 
comfort and strengthen your heart in this hour of trial, 
and may the remembrance of that glad day when we 
shall be caught up 'together with them' bring to you 
sweet consolation ! May Jesus become more precious 
to you than ever before ! is my prayer. I am simply 
bewildered at this news. It seems so incomprehensible. 
Of all God's men in this land, who, more than Brother 
Knapp, seemed to be necessary to His cause? I know 
of none ; and yet — God knows best ; so we must not 
only bow to His sweet will, but even praise Him, trust- 



Life: 01? Rev. M. W. Knapp. 389 

ing Him though He slay us. Glory to God! Take 
courage, sister ; a little while longer, and then Jesus 
and our loved ones throughout all eternity. 

**I feel the blessings of Brother Knapp's influence 
even now, and am encouraged to love and serve our 
blessed Master more than ever. God bless you ! 

*'My wife joins me in these feeble words of en- 
couragement. May He make them a blessing! In the 
Beloved, Your brother, E. A. Kilbourne." 

"Martinsville, O., December 9, 1901. 

"Mrs. M. W. Knapp : My Dear Sister,— The startling 
news has just reached my ears of the death of thy hus- 
band. I want to extend to thee my deepest sympathy 
and love in this thy greatest loss. While we rejoice that 
he is safely housed with Jesus our Bridegroom, there is 
always a pang at separation here, which all the Re- 
vivalist family will keenly feel, in the death of its be- 
loved Editor. We can't understand why he was called 
in the midst of his great undertakings for God, when 
there are so few these days who will trust God, and 
whom God will trust, to do exploits for Him. But 
some time we shall clearly understand when we see 
Him face to face. Jesus so sweetly showed His hu- 
manity when He 'wept' at the grave of Lazarus, and 
in the times of separation, while we can sweetly say, 
'Thy will be done,' yet we can not keep back the tears. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, God bless thee and give thee 
'abundant grace' to carry on the noble work thy hus- 
band began in Jesus' name, and may we not hope and 
pray that God will still give us the Revivalist that has 
fed and cheered so many hearts and homes? 

"The God of all grace richly bless, guide, and keep 



^QO A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

thee, and make His face to shine upon thee. How 
greatly we shall all miss Brother Knapp ! But O, how 
beautiful that we, too, all soon will be where sorrow 
nor death can not enter ! Thee has my earnest prayers. 
Again I say, God bless thee ! 
'Xovingly, thy sister in Jesus, 

"Gertrude Moon." 

"Denton, Maryland, December ii, 1901. 
"My Precious Sister Knapp, — We heard last night 
of Brother Knapp's death, and you may know of our 
great surprise and sorrow. It is very hard for me to 
realize that it is a fact. You will understand perfectly 
how to accept comfort. Christ can not be less than 
a perfect Savior to you now, when you will need Him, 
O so much ! There is a great deal I could say, but 
there is little that is necessary, since God, I know, will 
supply what you need of all things. I know dear 
Brother Knapp left you in His hands, expecting you 
to be cared for and protected. His spirit, life, present 
and future for each of us, seems a wonderful possibility. 
When we lay down the thoughts and feelings of this 
life we but take up those of the next ; as if, in the day, 
time goes one, nothing is lost. The future is still as 
the present, both unto God and the soul. This is my 
faith and feeling in regard to the life of Brother Knapp. 
He may still trust his earthly friends and have con- 
fidence in them, and expect them to do their best. We 
must not disappoint him. I want my life here, from 
this time, to be more humble a success than it has been 
before. And finally we will all meet in heaven, where 
we will not be separated in any way, not by even a 
thought ; for we shall then be as Christ. 

"With much love, Grace A. Fisher." 



I 



Life of Rkv. M. W. Knapp. -2qi 

'Trairie Depot, Ohio, December ii, 1901. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — Your letter just received, and, 
while I know you have friends nearer and dearer than 
I am, I can not refrain from sending you a few lines 
of sympathy in this your hour of bereavement. 

'*The news was an awful blow to me, and my first 
thought was, What must it be to his family and the 
Bible-school ? We know that God doeth all things well; 
but, to our finite minds, it seems as if Brother Knapp 
was the most useful and most needed man to-day in the 
world. O, how I praise God for what he and the paper 
have done,' under Christ, for my own soul ! May He 
give you needed strength, and raise up helpers to carry 
on the work to His glory ! O, my poor child, it is 
hard now, but a few more years and we shall all be 
together with the Lord forever. 

"May God bless and keep you! is my earnest prayer. 

"Your sister in Christ, Emily P. Carter." 

"Brooks, December 30, 1901. 
"Mrs. M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio : 

"Dear Sister in Christ, — Both of your kind letters 
came duly to hand, the last one to-day. I thank you 
very much for your kindness and your trouble. As 
lightning out of a clear sky reached us the sad news 
of the departure of our dear Brother Knapp into a 
better world. O, I loved this dear man with my wliole 
heart ; though 1 never heard anything from him this 
last summer, being from Germany here, only one year 
in America. How sweet to know that all things that 
come upon us are according to the blessed will of our 
beloved Master, and that they all have to turn out a 
blessing unto us ! May the dear Lord become more 
precious for you in these trials, and may He alone be 



392 



A Hero of Faith and Praykr. 



your Comforter and Counselor! Because He alone is 
able to comfort us, as a mother comforts her child, 
and His wisdom shall bring to naught the wisdom of 
this earth. \\'e pray much for you and the work the 
Lord has put into your hands now, and the same for 
the whole Revivalist family. 

*'May the power from on high rest upon the dear 
brothers and sisters that are going on the Lord's errand 
into the heathen countries, and may they be a bright 
and shining light in those dark continents. My brother 
and I are longing to come to Cincinnati once, to have 
a soul-refreshing time on the Mount of Blessings ; but 
we are in the hands of the Lord, and for the first He 
wants us to stay here in the loneliness of the woods. 
The Lord is blessing His work here with victory. All 
glory and honor and might be unto Him ! Four souls 
confess to have found their Savior here. Conviction is 
deeply resting upon the people. Glory be to Jesus — 
my Jesus ! The Lord is blessing us richly here. As 
there came one sister and two more brothers of ours 
over from Germany this last December, we are here 
now one sister and four brothers, all saved by the blood 
of the Lamb and living for His honor and glory. Hal- 
lel\ijah! Another of our brothers is yet in Salem, 
Ohio, — saved too, praise the Lord ! Our dear parents, 
both under the blood too, are living yet, with the rest 
of the family, in the old country. I have to beg your 
pardon for bothering you with so many perhaps un- 
interesting things ; but you wrote such a nice letter to 
me that I thought it would, perhaps, be of some interest 
for you to get a little more acquainted with us. Would 
you please be so kind and explain occasionally, in the 
Revivalist, Eph. ii, lo, especially the second part of the 
verse ? 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



393 



"May the Lord bless you and His work in Cincin- 
nati abundantly ! Pray for us. Yours in Christ, 

"F. Voget." 

"Osceola, Neb., December 14, 1901. 

*'To the friends in Memorial service assembled we 
extend fraternal sympathy. Having known Brother 
M. W. Knapp in youthful days, we being in college 
together in the same class, and rooming in the same 
building, I am pleased to present my humble, unsolicited 
tribute to his memory on this occasion. Who could 
tread the halls of old Albion, and be under the loving, 
watchful eye of our beloved President Jocelyn, and the 
influence of that giant mind. Dr. Perrine, and others of 
that loyal Faculty, without an earnest purpose to be a 
noble man or woman? Among the minds most re- 
ceptive of good stood our dear departed brother. Be- 
fore his conversion he was manly, noble, and true, and 
we, his close associates, felt that in him we saw a man 
with only one thing lacking, and that Christ. Later 
he was converted, and married the one whom he dearly 
loved, whose name with his has been a household w^ord 
in our home since we had a home of our own ; one who 
had the Christian courage to say to the one she adored, 
'Much as I might love you, I can not disobey my God 
and marry an unconverted man.' Would every woman 
take this stand, God would reward her as he did Lucy 
Glenn, and give her the strong support and love of 
the one of her choice, and he a devoted Christian. 

"Brother Knapp's first work in the ministry was in 
my neighborhood, and, by his earnest appeals and the 
touching songs of Sister Knapp, I was led to turn God- 
ward. Our hearts were then knit in much closer tie. 



294 -^ He:ro Of^ Faith and Prayer. 

I moved to Nebraska, and for years had no trace of 
Brother Knapp, until, a few years ago, I accidentally, 
it seemed, but providentially I know, found the Re- 
vivahst in a home devoted to God, bearing the name of 
the editor. I wrote and found, as I hope, my old friend, 
renewed acquaintance, subscribed for the paper, bought 
several of Brother Knapp's books, and again, through 
his influence, had my spiritual eyes opened to the depths 
of God's love in sanctifying grace. So his hand and 
voice had a large share in all I have ever received 
from God in experience. Why should not his memory 
be precious to me? To the wife left to mourn his 
departure, whom we have learned to love by corre- 
spondence, we would say, Wq weep with them that 
weep, but r-ejoice with you in the blissful thought of 
the happy reunion in a better world than this, where 
God shall wipe away all tears. 

*'We realize the very fitting application to his sor- 
rowing children of the words we once heard the son of 
Henry Clay Trumbull publicly utter in modest eulogy 
of his father, 'I am proud to be my father's son.' What 
a grand inheritance to leave our children — a noble 
fatherhood ! To the hundreds of readers of the writings 
of Brother Knapp, in books and periodicals, we extend 
our sympathy. We have indeed lost a helpful friend, 
but are rejoicing to know he has received his crown 
among the stars. As we have been inspired by his life, 
so let us receive a new inspiration by his death, and go 
forth to profit by his example of untiring zeal, and do 
what we can to bring the whole world to Jesus. 

"Yours for Christian service, 

"Mrs. Alyra Crozier, Evangelist, 
"Iowa Holiness Association.'^ 



Life of Rfv. M. W. Knapp. 



395 



"Dear Sister Knapp, — Last evening, while reading 
the Advocate, I learned for the first time that Brother 
Knapp had been sick and was dead. To say that I was 
surprised would be putting it mildly. I was shocked. 
To be sure these providential dealings with mankind 
are going around about us all the time ; yet, when it 
comes in our own homes and dear friends, it startles 
us. But how blessed it is to be able to have the Com- 
forter with us, who enables us to say, 'Thy will be 
done !' I am sure you have Him, even before you tell 
me so. I know you are resting in the sweet will of 
God. May God bless and comfort you and the dear 
children ! is my earnest prayer. I have know^n Brother 
Knapp for fifteen years, and he has given me good coun- 
sel more than once, and has encouraged me in my min- 
istry, and I believe has always intended to be a true 
Christian brother to me and all the rest of mankind. 
To be sure, we did not agree on non-essentials ; but we 
always did on the main line. I think I have always 
understood him, even better than some of his relations. 
I have no hesitancy in saying that I believe, without 
a doubt, that he is not dead, but more alive than ever 
he was on earth. I can say of him. This volume bound 
up, closed here, to be opened yonder, is a complete 
volume. 

''Was his sickness and death, described in the Advo- 
cate, taken from the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, a 
correct statement? I have not seen the Evangelist. God 
is with us this year in our work for the Master in 
Michigan. I hope to so walk with God that I may meet 
Brother Knapp in heaven. Again I say, God bless and 
keep you ! 

"I remain your friend and brother, 

'*F. E. Morehouse.'' 



396 A He:ro o^ Faith and Praykr. 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — Thanks for your kind letter. 
Will carefully read book on 'Healing,' and write you. 
Inclosed find P. O. order for $1.50 — $1 of which is for 
Godbey's 'Commentary on Revelation.' The other fifty 
cents for little Dorothy's 'Do-without' money. My dear 
friend, I am sure you will be glad to know how my 
little children love you ; your page in God's Revivalist 
is a delight to them. They do wish so much to see 
and know you. With God's help I am rearing them 
for His glory, so we may all join hands in the beyond. 
How my heart and how my husband's has bled with you 
in the going away of dear Brother Knapp! It is so 
sweet and such a revelation of the power and grace of 
God to read how humble and submissive you all are. 
Believe me, he and the dear paper have been a beacon- 
light to us this year when no other help was nigh, save 
the Comforter. O, how we feed on it ! And we do 
earnestly pray for each part of the work at Bible-school. 
May God verify all promises to you, each and all ! 
"Yours sincerely, Mrs. H. Briggs." 

"Dear Sister Knapp, — Yours of December 15th re- 
ceived. I have known Brother Knapp for seventeen 
years. Our intimacy began from the time we roomed 
together in Grand Rapids at the annual session of the 
Michigan Conference, in 1884. God made him a bless- 
ing to me at that time, not so much by what he said 
as by what he did. His Bible was his constant com- 
panion, the first thing in the morning, rising early so 
as to have time to read and commune with God, and 
the last thing at night, reading and meditating upon 
the Word before a season of prayer. After we retired, 
the conversation was along the line of retrospection of 
work^ methods which God had blessed, and plans for 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



397 



usefulness in the days to come ; no trifling remarks, 
nothing but what might have been said in the presence 
of the King. When we met after separations of months, 
his most emphatic inquiry was after the work, the 
progress in spiritual things, and the most usual form 
was, 'Been having victory, have n't you?' 

"At the tent-meeting held in Bloomingdale, 
Michigan, when pastor, Brother Knapp preached a 
vigorous, healthy gospel, so different from the milk-and- 
water effusions that were quite acceptable to back- 
slidden officials, that he aroused the community, and 
poured conviction on the audience. At the holiness 
meeting in Immanuel Church, in February, 1901, there 
was a young preacher who came to me, and, calling 
attention to that meeting where Brother Knapp was 
also present, said he was then and there convicted. I 
never knew Brother Knapp to hold a meeting without 
results. God always used him, and he always delivered 
the message faithfully. When after much prayer he 
began the publication of the Revivalist, I was convinced 
from correspondence with him that the work was of 
God, and He had made known to Brother Knapp that 
He wanted him in it. I do not know of one single 
instance when he moved in advance of God's plans, 
but only, and always, after much prayer and waiting 
upon Him for His will to be made known. I believe 
that all of his work, the publication of the Revivalist, 
God's Bible-school, the Rescue Home, and the world- 
wide mission work will go on, to the glory of God and 
the salvation of immortal souls, until Jesus comes. May 
God bless you, Sister Knapp, Bessie, and Sister Storey, 
and enable you constantly to crown Him Lord of all ! 
*'Yours in Jesus, George B. Kulp." 



398 A Hkro of Faith and Prayer. 

''One thing which, to my mind, was very prominent 
in the character of Brother Knapp was his faithfulness 
to souls. He was especially interested in the spiritual 
welfare of every one under his roof. He not only en- 
couraged those who were right, but faithfully warned 
those who were in error. I do praise God, and shall 
praise Him in eternity, for what Brother Knapp has 
been to me. He was the best friend I ever had, be- 
cause he told me of my faults. Several times, during 
the two years I have been in the Home, has he called 
me aside and plainly told me of wrong notions, false 
ideas, and mistakes he saw in me, which I had not 
been aware of, but afterward, I saw, had greatly hin- 
dered my Christian progress. He taught me lessons I 
shall never forget, and I have a determination in me to 
follow him as he followed Christ in dealing honestly 
with souls, and thus clear my skirts from the blood of 
all men. Alice M. Beam/' 

Thk Tribute of an Office Girl. 

"I wish I might say something that would half 
express my appreciation of you and the work you 
are carrying on. I am so glad that, in answer to 
your prayers and Brother Knapp's, God let me 
work in the Revivalist Ofifice almost five years, 
during what was, without doubt, the busiest part 
of his life. I never knew his princely faith to 
falter, and God so trusted him with more and 
more that each year of labor for the Lord seemed 
fuller of soul-saving effort than the preceding. Yet 
I never saw him so preoccupied that he was not 
eager to help people ; and he would often drop his work, 
when it seemed to demand his closest and immediate 
attention, to pray with some one who came to be saved 



Life of Rev. M, W. Knapp. 



399 



or healed. O, how many attribute their present heal- 
ing, and, under God, will owe their final salvation to 
his instant and untiring zeal ! 

"While I was in Cincinnati his home was a haven 
of rest to me, and his presence was a benediction to 
all who would be right with God. In the light of the 
judgment, there will be nothing to fear if we follow 
him as he followed Christ. As to his worth, the value 
and extent of his good influence is beyond human cal- 
culation. Not a day passes but we are reminded of his 
loyalty and: devotion to God, and it is always an in- 
spiration to press forward. Florence L. Potter." 



CHAPTER XXII. 
THE HERO PROMOTED. 

' ' So many worlds, so much to do. 
So little done, such things to be ; 
How know I what had need of thee ! 
For thou wert strong as thou wert true ! 

As sometimes in a dead man's face. 
To those that watch it more and more, 
A likeness hardly seen before 

Comes out — to some one of his race ; 

So, dearest, now thy brow is cold, 
I see thee what thou art, and know 
Thy likeness to the viise below, 

Thy kindred to the great of old. ' ' 

— Tennyson. 

** On God and Godlike men we build our trust. 
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; 
He is gone who seemed so great — 

Gone ; but nothing can bereave him 
Of the force he made his owt::, 

Being here, and we believe him 
Something far advanced in state. 
And that he wears a truer crown 

Than any wreath that man can weave him. 
God accept him, Christ receive him. " ' 

— Tennyson. 

The following tribute and poem was written by 
some one at the Boston Convention, whose name does 
not appear in the material sent me : 

"Ix AIemory of ]\I. AV. Kxapp. 

''Last Sunday afternoon I was at Park Street 
Church, Boston, attending that glorious Convention 

400 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 401 

that Seth C. Rees and his vigorous band were holding. 
All at once there was a solemn sensation spread over 
the congregation, when Seth Rees, in a deeply im- 
pressive manner, told us that Martin W. Knapp was 
gone to be with God. My own soul was deeply moved. 
Some cried aloud. In the past few months I have re- 
ceived many letters from him [Brother Knapp], and 
have wondered how it was possible that this devoted 
brother could bear up under such an everlasting and 
increasing burden of work and responsibility. It seemed 
to be utterly beyond the power of human endurance. 
His soul was all aflame with Pentecostal fire and 
heavenly zeal. Indeed, we may truly say, 'The zeal of 
God's house has eaten him up.' He lived in the heavens. 
His pen as well as his heart was on fire. I have been 
especially called to notice those heavenly forms that 
were published in God's Revivalist. There was a 
heavenly fragrance about them. 

"No wonder that there was a halo of glory about 
his bedside, when angels rejoiced while loved ones wept. 
He was no doubt a martyr to his work. 'He being dead, 
yet speaketh,' and speaketh louder than ever. I am fully 
resolved to devote myself anew to God and His glorious 
work." 

" 'A GENERAL ON THE FIELD HAS FALLEN.' 

" [The above words fell from the lips of Seth C. Rees, as he arose in 
the presence of the writer and a large congregation at Park Street Church, 
Boston, Sunday afternoon, December 8, 1901, to announce the translation 
of M.W. Knapp.] 

" A general on the field he fell, 
Where fiercest raged the fight 
Between the demon hordes of hell 

And regiments of Light, 
Where, ',with the keen Damascus blade 

Of God's unchanging Word, 
He battled sin, and trophies laid 
Before his conquering Lord. 
26 



402 



A Hero op* Faith and Praykr. 

A general on the field, who saw 

What millions fail to see, — 
The awful guilt of broken Law 

And bleeding Calvary ; 
The fixed gulf that yawns between 

The sinner and his God, 
"When plunged into the depths unseen 

Without the sprinkled blood ! 

A general on the field, who spurned 

All compromise with sin ! 
Whose very soul within him burned 

A fallen race to win ! 
For love and truth and holiness 

His choicest gifts he gave 
Of tongue and pen, the world to bless. 

And dying souls to save ! 
A general on the field ! For him 

No bivouac of ease ; 
He ' d face the foe if forced to swim 

Through wild and stormy seas ! 
His ardent spirit yearned to go 

Where shrieked the shot and shell, — 
A soldier true, face to the foe 

This * Prince in Israel ' fell ! 

A general on the field ! He waved 

The victor' s palm in death ; 
Cheered on the souls from ruin saved 

With his departing breath ; 
Caught strains of music floating sweet 

Where angel choirs sing, 
Flew to his waiting Savior's feet 

His golden sheaves to bring ! 

A general on the field ! Who will 

His falling mantle wear ? 
Whose arm shall wield his keen blade still? 

What hands his standard bear ? 
A double portion, Savior, give, 

Of power from on high ! 
'T were glorious such a life to live, 

And such a death to die ! " 



I 



Life of Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 403 

"Tribuite of thf Bible Commentator, W. B. GodbEy. 

"With Rev. Martin Wells Knapp it was my privilege 
to enjoy a happy acquaintance and intimate fellowship 
in the Lord's work the last twelve years of his life. 
Meanwhile he shone like the sun in his noonday glory; 
but unlike the sun who declines from the zenith to the 
Occident till barely eclipsed by the Hesperian hills, but 
like the Morning Star who goes not down on the ap- 
proach of day, but shines till the floods of diurnal splen- 
dor melt away his nocturnal glory amid the ovewhelm- 
ing grandeur and effulgent radiations accompanying the 
king of day. 

"The fall of Brother Knapp at the early age of 
forty-eight was like the sun dropping from the zenith 
at noonday. What a blessed privilege simultaneously 
to cease to labor and cease to live, thus, in God's signal 
mercy, delivered from all the decrepitude of declining 
years ! My constant prayer is, 'O Lord, Thy will be 
done.' If consistent with His will, I certainly would 
hail it as a signal blessing to go suddenly from labor to 
rest. 

* Servant of God, well done ! 

Rest from thy loved employ ; 
The battle fought, the victory won, 

Enter thy Saviour's joy. 
But strew his ashes to the winds, 

Whose pen and voice still bless the world. 
And is he dead ? Glorious reward ! 

Life 's thine on high. 
To live in hearts we leave behind 

Is not to die.' 

"Brother Knapp will preach, shine, and shout in the 
nine books which God gave the world through his in- 
strumentality till Jesus comes in the clouds, and then 



404 ^ Hero 01^ Faith and Praye:r. 

on through all the ages of eternity, as many will rise up 
to call him blessed. 

"His zeal was sublime, his dctrine Wesleyan, and 
his courage Napoleonic. He seemed to live amid sheets 
of cherubic light and flames of seraphic fire. He was 
a beautiful incarnation, exhibiting the love of John, the 
fire of Peter, the lightning of Jude, and the dynamite 
of Paul. 

"Let all the saints pray that his mantle may rest 
on his son John with a double portion of his spirit. 
He was a marvel of intellectual brilliancy and nervous 
acumen, having the most active brain I ever knew. 
His thoughts moved with locomotive speed. Doubt- 
less the preternatural activity of his mind wore out his 
body prematurely, like Hugh Aliller, Dr. Munsey, and 
others. His enterprises were simply marvelous, girdling 
the globe with his missions in Africa, Japan, and India, 
and actually sending two evangelists around the world 
to encourage the work in all lands. 

"God's Revivalist, God's Tabernacle on the Mount 
of Blessings, God's Training-school, Salvation Park 
Camp-meeting, and God's Rescue Home are living 
monuments of that indefatigable perseverance which 
characterized this wonderful man of God. 

"W. B. Godbey." 

The following tribute is from the Holiness Advocate, 
Goldsboro, N. C. : 

"M. W. Knapp at Re:sT. 

"By this time nearly everybody that reads a holiness 
paper or an anti-holiness paper knows of the departure 
of this devoted servant of God. He left earth, with 
all of its battles and strife, on December 7th, at half-past 



lyiFK oi' Re:v. M. W. Knapp. 405 

ten o'clock. Brother Knapp was the most widely known 
and useful man in the holiness movement, especially in 
the independent feature of it. He was most abundant 
in labors. He was the author of nine books, the founder 
and editor of the Revivalist, the founder of a Bible 
Training-school for missionaries and other Christian 
workers and a Rescue Home in the city of Cincinnati, 
and mission work in Africa. He was in the prime of 
life, and none of us dreamed that his labors were so 
nearly finished. He was criticised by some on account 
of his aggressiveness and independency ; and even his 
motives were questioned ; but he has left monuments 
to his memory that will stand till Jesus comes. 

"I never saw his face, but feel just like I knew him 
personally. I expect to see him and know him when 
that blessed meeting takes place up in the air at the 
coming of the Lord. It may seem strange to some of 
us that he should be called away just at this time, when 
the cause of true holiness so much needed his work and 
influence. But may we not forget that God can bury 
His workmen and still carry on His work ! The Advo- 
cate extends its sympathy to Sister Knapp and the chil- 
dren in this their sore bereavement, and joins the host 
of their brothers and sisters at a Throne of Heavenly 
Grace in earnest prayer that our Heavenly Father may 
graciously lead and bless the devoted wife and children 
till they all meet at Jesus' feet, to part no more forever." 

From the Little Visitor, Port Huron, Mich. : 
"Gone: to his Reward. 

"No doubt every reader of the Little Visitor has 
heard of the departure of our beloved brother, Rev. 
M. W. Knapp, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Yet, this being the 



4o6 A Hkro op^ Faith and Praye:r. 

case, we would not feel right if we should edit this 
edition without making mention of him. To me, per- 
sonally, he has not only been a dear brother in Christ, 
not only a co-laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, but 
a real father in the Holiness Movement of Michigan. 
His words of advice, as well as of encouragement in our 
infant days as a Holiness Union are still ringing in our 
ears. His powerful sermons, his earnest prayers at our 
State camp-meeting at Dimondale last summer, are 
fresh in my mind, and bring new inspiration to my soul 
as I meditate upon them. Of him it can be truly said: 
'He has fought a good fight, he has finished his course, 
he has kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for 
him a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give him at that day." (2 Tim. 
iv, 7, 8.) While our hearts feel sad when we think of 
our parting, yet there is a wave of joy and gladness 
almost welling up into a hallelujah when we think of 
our meeting again, may be in the air, as we for the first 
time are dressed in a new tabernacle, not made with 
hands. 

' O, hallelujah, it won't be long either, 

A few more days, a few more years 
To tell our Redeemer's story. 

A few more crosses and a few more tears. 
Then away to our home in glory.' 

" Teace to his ashes.' " 

From Zion's Outlook, Nashville, Tenn. : 

"Rev. M. W. Knapp — A Briei^ Sketch — His Experi- 
ence. 

"This indefatigable worker, fearless and devout sol- 
dier, laid his armor aside at his home in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, Saturday, December 7th, at 10.50 P. M. While 



Lii^e: 01^ Rijv. M. W. Knapp. 407 

typhoid fever was the immediate cause of his death, the 
post-mortem examination revealed the fact that he was 
worn out through overwork ; hence, when attacked by 
fever, he did not have sufficient vitahty to throw off 
the disease. He was a bundle of nerves and a prodigy 
of energy, and the delicate body could not bear the 
strain of such an active brain. Twenty years ago, 
physicians told him that he could not live long ; but, de- 
spite their warnings, he did the work of two or three 
men, pressing the battle against sin with an intensity 
seldom seen until he fell at his post. 

"The Holiness Movement never produced a more 
loyal and aggressive advocate of the Wesleyan state- 
ment of sanctification. He wrote, published, and dis- 
tributed a vast amount of holiness literature. The Re- 
vivalist, which he established and edited, has a large 
circulation. The Rescue Home and Bible Training- 
school, both of which are located in Cincinnati, have 
been signally prospered. They also have several mis- 
sionaries in the foreign fields. 

''During his last sickness the ruling passion of his 
life was predominant ; namely, the salvation of sinners, 
and he exhorted them to prepare for eternity. The 
work committed to his hands has had a phenomenal 
growth. In whatever work he engaged he did it with 
all of his might as unto the Lord. He often wielded a 
very sharp blade. He was radical in his convictions, and 
made no compromise with worldHness. The cause of 
holiness never had a more ardent advocate." 

• 'XiKK Jksus. 

" BEATRICE M. Finney. 

"A short time before Brother Knapp slipped away 
to heaven, one of the Bible students, speaking about 
the book, 'The Spirit of Jesus,' said : 'I never met any 



4o8 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

one in all my life that I think has so much of the Spirit 
of Jesus as Brother Knapp ; and when I read that book 
I thought, Surely Brother Knapp is like that.' 

''He was truly a living epistle of Jesus, known and 
read far and wide ; and no one realized it so much as 
those who knew him best ; and while the young lady 
who made this remark had been in school only a few 
months, yet I, after having been more closely asso- 
ciated w4th Brother Knapp than any one else, with the 
exception of his family and two or three others, for 
the past two years, could conscientiously, and without 
hesitancy, add a cheerful 'Amen' to her strong state- 
ment. In meekness, in gentleness, in patience, in kind- 
ness, in humility, in temperance, in love, and in firmness 
in being true to his convictions from God, he certainly 
was an exemplification of Jesus. These fruits of the 
Spirit were in full blossom in his life, and the atmosphere 
was filled with their fragrance, not only in every room 
and hall at the ]\Iount of Blessings, but in prisons, in 
slums, in homes of the poor and rich, their perfume was 
wafted by his consecrated pen, carrying with it such a 
delightful odor that all over men and women were at- 
tracted to and made hungry for more of Jesus. 

"I never shall cease to praise God for the privilege 
of being under the white light of Brother Knapp's clear 
teaching for the past two years. I remember, before 
the Bible-school opened, when we were making out the 
rules, regulations, etc., for the school, he would al- 
ways say, 'Let 's have a word of prayer before we be- 
gin.' Then he would bow his head and ask God to give 
us wisdom and to give us His mind in what we were 
about to do, and so save us from mistakes, etc., so that 
I soon found only those who were most intimately ac- 
quainted with him realized how much like Jesus he really 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 409 

was, how closely he lived to Jesus, and how entirely 
he depended on the Lord for even the smallest details 
of the work. Thus he taught not only the theory or 
the doctrine, but he put into practice by daily living 
everything he preached. 

''There was no service too humble for him to per- 
form ; and when some of the boys were tried about push- 
ing the mail-cart,. he told them 'that used to be his work 
when he first came to Cincinnati, until God filled his 
hands so full of other things he had no time for that.' 

"I shall, never forget the impression made upon my 
heart one morning shortly after the Bible-school first 
opened. I was looking out of my window, thanking 
God for the Mount of Blessings, when Brother Knapp 
suddenly came around the corner of the dining-room, 
with both hands full of groceries. His clothes looked 
old and worn. He walked as if his body was tired 
and very weary; and there was something so pathetic, 
so much like Jesus, about his very appearance that my 
eyes filled with tears. I thought of his wonderful 
mind and wisdom, and how he might be living in ease 
and luxury in a beautiful home, enjoying the com- 
panionship of his wife and children, and then of the con- 
trast, how he was losing his life for others, denying him- 
self of all the comforts of home-Hfe, and working, fast- 
ing, and praying, in order that we might have a better 
knowledge of the Word of God. Thus God used him 
to preach sermons that will stay with us forever, not 
only by tongue and pen, but by holy living. As he 
lived, so he died, forgetting self clear up until the last 
breath, and thinking only of God and lost souls, as 
nearly the last thing he said was : 'Wake them up ! 
Wake them up!' And when they inquired, 'Who?^ he 
feebly whispered, 'Lost souls going down to hell.' He 



4IO A Hkro o^ Faith and Praykr. 

preached as -long as God gave him breath, because he 
loved to do it. Thus, when he went up in the mountains 
of Kentucky a few weeks before he died, he told us 
how he redeemed the time by walking down a steep 
mountain ahead of the stage, and printing on an im- 
mense rock, in large letters, 'Repent, or Perish!' and 
then how he hastened on into a humble home, where it 
v/as too dark to read his Bible, and where he told them 
about Jesus, and had a few words of prayer with them 
before the stage came along. 

A few nights before he went to heaven he sent for 
me to come over and pray with him. When I went in, 
he seemed so much better that I felt sure he was going 
to get well. He said, 'Sister Finney, I want you to go 
to the General Health Department of the Universe, and 
inquire why I am not healed.' I told him we had been 
praying, and believed that he would be, but none of us 
could get the gift of faith for present healing. He 
then told me that for weeks he had been working under 
an awful strain, and, after making me faithfully promise 
that I would not say anything to the students, he said 
that sometimes right in the middle of an article some 
of the students would come to him with perplexing ques- 
tions, which took consideration to decide, and his head 
would almost burst under the strain. I began to plead 
at once that he would just let me mention to the students 
not to take things to him unless it was absolutely nec- 
essary. He said : 'No, indeed, I can't let you do it, be- 
cause I thought of doing it myself one afternoon, but 
when I went to the service it slipped my mind ; so when 
I came back there was a timid knock on the door, and 
I was just on the point of saying, 'Very busy,' when 
the Spirit restrained me. I opened the door, and found 
a girl who had neither father nor mother, and I would 



Lii'Jv oi' Rp:v. M. W. Knapp. 411 

not have turned her away for anything; but I just tell 
you so that you can pray for God to help me hold all 
these things in mirid. I want God to make a strong man 
out of me.' 

"1 then laid my hands on his head, and prayed with 
all the intensity of my soul for God to reveal the reason 
he was not healed, and to give the gift of faith for 
present healing. When I had finished, he said, in his 
gentle way : 'Perhaps you made a mistake in dictating 
to God. You must remember, God's ways are not man's 
ways.' His kind voice was a rebuke to me; so I there 
and then asked God to forgive me if I had been over- 
anxious in claiming promises for his healing ; but I could 
not get a present faith. I then told him that I was going 
to hold on to God for him. The last words he said to me 
were, Do n't pray all night.' When I got to the door, I 
was impressed to go back and shake hands with him, but 
I was afraid he might think I was letting down in my 
faith and would not do it. Two nights after that, and the 
night before he died, four of us were praying all night, 
but no one could get a burden. We had such a rest of 
faith that we thought it was the gift of faith. About one 
o'clock, Mrs. Knapp looked up, with her face shining 
like heaven, and said, in a half-whisper, 'O, I feel the 
angels in the room !' and sure enough, almost instan- 
taneously we all felt their presence, and sat gazing at 
each other in silence too sacred to be broken even by a 
whisper for over an hour. While kneeling there silently 
in the presence of God and the angels, it came to me 
like a sweet voice, 'Pray the Lord's Prayer.' I began 
until I came to 'Thy will ge done.' Then the Spirit 
whispered, 'Are you willing for Brother Knapp to die?' 
I said : 'Why, yes, Lord ; if you want him. But I do n't 
see who could ever take his place. I do n't see how 



/j.12 A He:ro of Faith and Praye:r. 

Your work can possibly spare him.' Then, like a flash, 
there was brought to my mind what he had said about 
God's ways not being man's ways ; and then a vision of 
his poor, tired, aching head and weary body if he should 
recover, then the beautiful contrast of how our loss 
would be his gain, how glad the angels would be to wel- 
come him, and his poor head would never ache again, 
and his weary body would be forever at rest. 

*The tears streamed down my face as I thought how 
selfish of me to want him to stay, and I said : Xord, 
forgive me ! I can say, "Thy will be done," from the 
depths of my heart.' When I said this, it just seemed 
as if heaven itself opened and flooded my soul. O, it 
was blessed ! I can't begin to describe it. I only know 
that God and heaven have been much nearer since that 
night, and there slipped into my heart a deeper deter- 
mination and a more intense longing to be like Jesus 
than ever before." 

*'To the Tens of Thousands of Sorrowing Saints of the 
Great Revivalist Family Throughout the World : 

''Grace and peace be multiplied through the mani- 
fold trials and temptations which come to all of the truly 
sanctified. May the God of all grace teach you in these 
days of bereavement how to walk in the comforts of 
the Holy Ghost ! It is with a deep feeling of unworth- 
iness that I have consented to write a chapter for this 
book. My only reason for doing so, is that I may, by 
His help, place emphasis upon some of the divinely-be- 
stowed qualities of our precious, sainted brother, and 
thus magnify the grace of God, and comfort, strengthen, 
and establish the Lord's own. 

"Martin Wells Knapp was my bosom friend. He 
was my wise counselor. I knew him more intimately 



Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp. 



413 



for the last few years than any other man of my ac- 
quaintance. To bury him, even at his own request, 
was the hardest duty of the kind which I ever have per- 
formed ; but hardness must be endured as good soldiers 
of Jesus Christ. Hardness develops rugged qualities, 
and fits us for greater conflicts. 

"One of our greatest warriors is dead. A general 
has fallen at the front. He was hugging the firing-line, 
and was found with the armor on. He was in the 
Gettysburg of his life, and just as he reached the heights 
of the foe and shouted 'Victory is sure,' God said, 'It 
is enough ; come up higher,' and he was given a com- 
mand in the skies. Sudden and shocking as was his 
death to us, it was transcendently glorious for him. It 
was just what he wanted. No time lost ; no years of 
superannuated life ; quick time and close connection ; 
no loss of power ; no abating zeal ; no experience with- 
out the edge ; no old 'has been ;' one day fighting here, 
the next day shouting there. O Lord, let my days on 
earth end like that ! 

"We mourn not for Brother Knapp, but for the 
work of Jesus Christ on earth, and for the people who 
need a leader, and the sheep who are without a shepherd. 
Our heads are fountains of tears, and our sorrow 
noboby knows except the real saints. Nobody suffers 
so keenly or knows so well the pangs of real sorrow 
as the sanctified. Brother Knapp fought just a little 
ahead of us, and has fallen on the breastworks of the 
enemy. We stop for an hour in this awful conflict to 
thank God for the victories won, and take courage and 
press to the front that we too may accomplish the whole 
purpose of God. Although Brother Knapp was an 
avowed enemy of the world and all forms of worldliness, 
it was not the world that killed him, but the thrusts of 



414 -^ Hkro 01^ Faith and Praykr. 

a fallen Church and backslidden holiness professors. 
His delicate frame and sensitive nature went down 
under a shower of stones from those who should have 
held up his hands. How Hke the case of our Lord ! I 
doubt if any man living stood closer to him or knew him 
better, and I know truly that he was a good man, full 
of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Let us also die in the 
harness, hugging the reproach that comes to a true 
soldier. And now, before I enter fully into this chapter 
of Brother Knapp's life, let me say to every soldier in 
the field, whether on the perilous lines of heathendom, 
on the frontier among the prairie wolves and the moun- 
tain lions, or in the slums and cesspools of sin, no dif- 
ference where your post, tighten your belt and push 
ahead. God lives, and will give a great victory all along 
the line. We will lift up our heads and go forth to 
greater conflicts and greater victories. Brother Knapp 
was not an ordinary man. For many years he had been 
an extraordinary man, because he was God's chosen 
instrument for a very special and wonderful work. It 
was not his personal appearance, however. His per- 
sonal and social position was insignificant. If you 
could take a look into the humble home of his child- 
hood days you would see a frail, shrinking, bashful 
boy. You would not find much in the picture that 
looked like the germ of such a heroic life, and yet it 
was this man, imder these depressing circum.stances, 
whom God called to lead one of the greatest exploits 
of Christian warfare. He was not a born fighter as 
some have boasted, but as he has told me again and 
again he was a born coward until he was 'born again.' 
It was not natural but Divinely supernatural for him to 
stand so boldly and so erect, no matter what the op- 
position. He is another illustration of the fact that the 



Lii^iv op^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 



415 



loftiest and most illustrious characters in the line of 
God's chosen heroes are taken from the humble walks 
of life, and educated in the school of trial and hardship. 
The heroes of the world have been produced under 
high pressure. Brother Knapp would never have chosen 
the publicity or leadership which his calling gave him. 
He did not seek the place ; the place sought him. He 
did not attack sin in high places, or denounce false dig- 
nitaries and backslidden Churches because he was a 
pugilist, for he was far from it ; but he felt the call of 
God upon him, and he must be true. His call was to 
an hour of awful need. God opened his eyes to see the 
awful darkness of these days, the pitiable and deplor- 
able condition of the American pulpit, and the awful 
apostasy of Protestantism. It was the darkest hour 
of the world's history, when there was but one saint on 
earth, that Noah dived his life and testimony to holi- 
ness. It was in the midnight of his people's history 
that Moses came forth, turned on the powers of the 
skies, and broke the iron grip of Pharaoh and his throne. 
It was when infidelity and idol-worship were wide- 
spread, and Israel was rushing wildly to the very prec- 
ipice of ruin, that Elijah blazed forth out of the dark- 
ness, and by his ministry of fire proclaimed a knowledge 
of the long forgotten God. During the dark age of 
the Judges, that some of the most brilliant men of the 
Old Testament are found like stars in the night. So 
the life, character, and herculean labors of our precious 
Brother Knapp shine out like a bright and particular 
star in the midnight darkness of these awful days. It 
was an hour of desperate need of God's own true and 
oppressed people, when Brother Knapp stepped for- 
ward in the Holiness Movement, and lifted high the 
banner of true holiness and Christian liberty, and 



4i6 A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 

sounded long and loud the bugle-call for the Lord's 
redeemed people to throw off the yoke of a dead eccle- 
siasticism, and break away from the popery of a fallen 
pulpit. 

"Through his fearless, faithful ministry and the 
multiplied thousands of books, booklets, and papers, 
which he has scattered throughout the world, he has 
led very many to see the apostate condition of the so- 
called Churches, and the great danger of complicity 
with them, by supporting them financially and bidding 
them God-speed. 

"Tens of thousands rise up to day and call him 
'blessed.' What will it be when he shall come back 
with our glorious Lord ? 

"The first and most prominent feature of his life 
was his Christian experience. This is always the most 
important thing that heaven sees in a man. A Bible 
experience is the Divine standard for the measure- 
ment of men. 

"Brother Knapp not only had a clear radical re- 
generation, but he stressed the New Testament standard 
of repentance and regeneration until many who pro- 
fessed to be sanctified, discovered under his ministry 
that they were not saved at all. 

"His Pentecost, by which' he was sanctified wholly, 
was distinct and emphatic. He was deeply spiritual, 
intensely fervent, keen in discernment, tearfully tender, 
joyful in sorrow, and always abounding in labor. He 
stood like the everlasting hills for the truth of entire 
sanctification. He always taught that it was subsequent 
to regeneration, and that inbred sin, or the carnal mind, 
is destroyed in this mighty second work of grace. 

"He saw clearlv, and beheved to the hour of his 



Lii^ii o^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 417 

death, that much of the so-called Holiness Movement 
of these times is backslidden and compromised. He 
announced again and again, and toward the close of his 
life with great emphasis, that any type of holiness that 
did not put emphasis on the Bible doctrines of Divine 
healing and the evangelization of the world was false. 

"For his positive and pronounced convictions that 
this world is growing worse and worse, and that there 
will be no millennium until after Jesus comes again in 
the clouds of heaven, he suffered much ; but, always 
true to his' conviction, he was most unwavering, as 
you will see by reading one of his latest books, 'Holi- 
ness Triumphant.' He had profound convictions, and, 
thank God, he had courage to stand by them. 

*'God in heaven made him a true man ; the edge of 
his sword never turned, no difference what the pressure. 

"It is most refreshing, in these days of putty men 
and cowards, to find a man who is not afraid to go 
with the minority. The truth has always been with the 
minorities. 

"Think of the multiplied thousands around this 
world who have been blessed and a blessing through 
the self-denial, fidelity, and daring of our brother, who 
pushed his way up the water-courses, and planted the 
banner of true holiness on territory where no other 
man had gone. He has pressed into the police stations, 
jails, and pententiaries ; into the hospitals and alms- 
houses ; into the orphanages and missions, slums and 
jungles ; into the shacks and hovels of the poor, as well 
as the homes and palaces of the respectable and the 
rich. He had but one gospel and one standard for all. 

"In self-denial I have never known his equal. There 
may have been many such ; but it has never been my 
27 



4i8 A Hkro o:^ Faith and Prayer. 

good fortune to meet a man who was so unselfish, 
and who so constantly studied to deny himself for the 
sake of the kingdom of Christ. 

"Beloved reader, we are nothing but dust and ashes ; 
but the God of battles who fought for the patriarchs, 
prophets, and martyrs, has held our brother in all the 
hard places, and supported him to the end, and given 
him an abundant entrance into the everlasting king- 
dom of Jesus Christ, and He will also fight for us, if 
we will be true to our glorious trust. 

"Brother Knapp would surely have us close up by 
saying that, all he was, he was by the grace of God. 
And that to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be all the 
glory and honor forever. 

"I am sure there are tens of thousands w^ho can say 
with me that we shall be very much better forever for 
having come in touch with this pure, noble man. May 
ten thousand blessings be upon his bereaved widow 
and children ! May the God of all grace keep us true 
to Himself until we, too, may go up to be forever with 
the Lord. Yours and His, 

"Seth C. Rees." 

There was but a little more than the width of two 
counties between Brother Knapp's birthplace and mine, 
both in Michigan. After nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury's absence from native State, I moved back to be- 
come pastor of the Olivet College Church, within 
twenty miles of Albion College, under whose shadow 
Brother Knapp was then living. O, if I had then known 
the precious brother and felt the influence of his life ! 
Little did I dream that one who would become so much 
to me, and whose biography I was destined to write, 
was only a score of miles away. 



Lii^S OF Rev. M. W. Knapp. 419 

I want to call attention to some of the striking fea- 
tures of this beautiful character before we close this 
book : 

I. Notice the predominating influence of women 
upon him. It was his mother, rather than his father, 
who molded him during the plastic years of Hfe in the 
home. In college, it was not the college president or 
any professor that put the indelible impress upon his 
soul, nor his pastor, nor any male student ; it was a 
pure-hearted, talented young girl, who was absolutely 
loyal to God ; it was her conscientious, prayerful Chris- 
tian life that stirred the deeps of his being, and helped 
him to become a Christian, a preacher and a soul- 
winner, an author and an editor. 

When she, his precious wife, died, after a long sick- 
ness, he went through sorrows and trials that brought 
him into the Holy of Holies with God. The influence 
of not one man is more than mentioned during those 
formative years. 

Then God gave him another blessedly helpful wife, 
an ideal mother to his motherless children, and so 
efficient as an assistant editor and co-manager in his 
entire business that she succeeds him in it all. With 
her he joined "Bessie" Queen, one of his assistants, and 
Miss Mary Storey, an evangelist, as trustees of his many 
remarkable and important enterprises — all women! 

Throughout his entire career he was nobly appre- 
ciative of women, a benediction to women, and a com- 
panion of women in the work of his life ; yet, withal, he 
was one of the manliest men I ever met. If female 
influence can produce such a character, O that women 
would all be like these sanctified women that sur- 
rounded him, and be about their Lord's business, fash- 
ioning GodUke characters of heroic mold ! 



420 



A Hero of Faith and Prayer. 



2. I want to glorify God by calling attention to the 
Divine element as the predominating factor in this great 
life. 

As usual, men are now trying to account for this 
man's marvelous success by magnifying his natural 
gifts and endowments. "O, Knapp was a born fighter !" 
''Knapp was an unusual, pushing business-man." 
*' Knapp was a strongly intellectual man, and had nat- 
urally great enthusiasm." I protest against this utterly 
fallacious method of accounting for our beloved 
brother's achievements. When men are naturally so 
great, men naturally find it out. The neighbors have 
no difhculty in finding out what boy in the community 
is born a bold, aggressive fighter. College Faculties 
have no difficulty in discovering the great intellects. 
Presiding elders and bishops naturally discover the 
preachers whom nature makes great. But none of these 
people discovered Knapp, for the simple reason that 
he was not discoverable imtil the Holy Spirit made him 
what he became. The bishops sent him to obscure ap- 
pointments, and the people resented his coming. 

Nothing but the Spirit of God could take a youth 
so timid and cowardly that he could scarcely be in- 
duced to go on an errand to a neighbor, and make him 
so brave that he would confront the Discipline of his 
Church, and the wrath of men, and the devil himself, 
for the sake of a principle. 

This is not the natural ; it is the supernatural. 

Of all the men that I have ever met — potential men, 
great men — I consider Brother Knapp the greatest 
suprise, the most truly Spirit-filled, Spirit-thrilled, 
Spirit-guided, Spirit-illuminated, and Spirit-empowered 
man I have known. There was in him relatively the 
least of the human and the most Divine. There is no 



hii'^ 01' Rev. M. W. IvNArp. 421 

other rational solution of his career. Brother Godbey 
speaks of his ''intellectual brilliancy,'^ and very appro- 
priately. His mind was all on fire, like a meteor sweep- 
ing through the sky; but nobody found it out, and he 
was not thus on fire until he was filled with the Holy 
Ghost. It was the Spirit who imparted to him the 
matchless courage that made him like a crested Achilles 
on the battle-plain, where forces of good and evil, light 
and darkness, heaven and hell, contended for eternal 
mastery. It was the Spirit who gave him the remark- 
able intuition, the Divine discernment, to look down 
into hearts until frauds and hypocrites and slanderers 
and pretenders winced and withered under his searching 
gaze. 

It was the Holy Spirit that filled him with such a 
holy zeal, such a fire in his bones, such a consuming, 
Christlike passion for souls, that, as in the case of his 
Master, it found expression even in the hour of his 
death. 

It was the Spirit that induced a delicate and already 
overworked man to add enterprise to enterprise, and 
burden to burden, and reach out in every direction as 
if he longed to lay the whole world at the feet of his 
Lord, and set every lost soul as a jewel in the lustrous 
crown of Christ. If this is all natural, what is the matter 
with thousands of ministers better educated than he, 
who do not win one soul where he won scores and 
even hundreds? Natural? Yes, it is the kind of 
"natural" that comes down from God out of the skies ; 
that hit the apostles on the day of Pentecost; the nat- 
ural that has a Divine prefix to it — supern3.tnr2L\. 

It was the Holy Spirit that led him to say and to 
write the things that people needed to hear and read, but 
did not want, choosing to be pelted with stones rather 



422 A He:ro 01^ Faith and Praye:r. 

than roses, and crowned with thorns rather than with 
chaplets of flowers, and greeted with frowns rather 
than smiles. It was the Holy Spirit that enabled him 
to wrap the bloodstained banner of the Cross about 
him, and walk deliberately to the firing-line, follow 
who would, or run who might, and there, alone with 
Jesus, face the belching batteries of cowards and 
trimmers, dead Churches and ecclesiastics, and a Christ- 
hating world! Nothing human and natural here; this 
is the burning bush and holy ground, the superhuman 
and the Divine. 

3. If this book is a picture of anything, it paints 
a "Hero of Faith and Prayer." What seemed to others 
speculative and misty and visionary, were to him more 
real and substantial than the rock-ribbed mountains. 
He did not doubt the great truths of redemption — con- 
viction, conversion, regeneration, justification, the wit- 
ness of the Spirit, followed later by instantaneous sanc- 
tification through the baptism with the Spirit. He no 
more doubted these truths and his experience of them 
than he doubted his existence. He was one of the few 
who could say, "I know whom I have believed, and I 
am persuaded.^' To the proclamation of these truths 
he dedicated himself under the call of God; and rather 
than give them up, or disown them, or keep silent 
about them, he would have suffered himself to be thrown 
to the Hons, to be torn limb from limb. In short, his 
life put him in the eleventh of Hebrews, in the sheep- 
skin and goatskin crowd, "of whom the world is not 
worthy." 

He lived in the unseen realm, and communed with 
the Invisible. He prayed over great themes until he 
felt that God had given him a book, and then it poured 
through his mind and flowed from his pen like water 



hi^^ OF Ri^v. M. W. Knapp. 



423 



pouring through a crevice in a dike. He waited on God, 
and got his mind on his great enterprises, and then he 
ventured upon schemes that would have seemed to 
others visionary and chimerical; but to him, who had 
prayed them through, they were as certain as fate, and 
success was as sure as the promises of the ternal God. 

He prayed over the books he was asked to publish. 
Under the illumination of the Spirit, he rejected 
many ; but every one he accepted and published proved 
to be a success. 

He led 'Others because he was gifted to divine the 
movement of the enemy and where the battle-front 
would be, and he took possession of Round Top 
in the Gettysburg struggle ahead of time. He knew 
no defeat, for he found where God was, and took sides 
with him. 

He was the very incarnation of unselfishness. God 
knew He could trust him, and led men to do it ; and in 
a little more than two years people have voluntarily 
given him, in answer to prayer, more than twenty thou- 
sand dollars for his "Bible-school," and eight thousand 
dollars for his ''World-wide Holiness Missions," and 
over six thousand dollars for his ''Rescue Home" — 
about Thirty-five Thousand Dollars! And it is wise be- 
nevolence, that will bring to the donors big dividends 
in eternal glory. 

The poor and the sinful and the outcast found in him 
a helper ; the fallen woman found an asylum in his home ; 
and the whole heathen world had a place in his Christ- 
like heart. He was the most prayerful, the most humble, 
the most teachable, the most earnest, the most courag- 
eous, the most aggressive of us all. 

He was a heaven-inspired leader of the Lord's hosts, 
dead to everything but the interests of Christ's king- 



424 



A Hero o:^ Faith and Praye:r. 



dom, holiness, and God. In the ftilhiess of a magnificent 
prime he fell, standing in his place fighting for truth 
and the enthronement of Christ. O brave, tender soul ! 
thy life is a rebuke and an inspiration to us all. The 
world is lonely without thee; but the unseen realm is 
nearer and dearer. 

*' Heaven oped its gate before thy hastening feet, 
And all the saints made haste a saint to greet ; 
Go, weary toiler, to thy well-earned rest ; 
We loved thee much j but Jesus loved thee best. ' ' 



BOOKS BY A. M. HILLS, 

President of Texas Holiness University. 



HOLINESS AND POWER. 

It treats of the Disease of the 
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Results of Obtaining It. 



\^m^ 




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